Feeling Hollow
by Daricio
Summary: Instead of visiting the Vaizard, Ichigo realizes that fighting and defeating his inner hollow isn't the only way to deal with his problem. Could the two possibly form an alliance? Chapter eight up! Getting back up again!
1. Feeling Hollow

A/n: ... Kay, I'm not really sure why I thought I needed yet another fanfic on my hands on top of all the other random stories that I should be working on...

With maybe five different stories waiting for me to work on them, I decided instead to randomly become obsessed with a totally new anime and, of course, take a shot at writing a fanfic for that too.

My main problem with writing anything Bleach related is that most of Bleach consists of constant battle scenes, and I can't write decent battle scenes to save my life... And, of course, I _would_ do something like decide to start my story off in the middle of a battle, too, just to make it hard on myself. u.u  
It's supposed to be the first Grimmjaw vs Ichigo fight, by the way...

And by the way, battle scenes are even harder to write when one or more of the characters has no name... so I'm going to pretend that at this point, Ichigo knows what Grimmjaw's name is, so that I don't have to keep writing "the Arrancar" over and over again...

This is most likely going to end up as just a one shot. Partly because of my afore-mentioned mass of other stories I should be writing, and partly because I really don't have this planned out very well. I don't really know where I'm going with this...

So, I'll just write, and eventually we'll end up somewhere. How's that?

By the way, HUGE thanks to Bakurakrazie for beta-ing for me! Seriously, people, this girl hasn't even _seen_ Bleach before, and she still agreed to beta for me even though she has no idea what's going on. It is thanks to her that this story isn't a big jumble of incomprehensible run on sentences. XD THANK YOU!

(Divider)

As much as Ichigo hated to admit it, his opponent appeared to be stronger than he was.

If the two block long tumble he had taken from just one hit from Grimmjaw hadn't proved that, then the fact that the Arrancar was now hitting him so rapidly that he couldn't even move definitely clinched it.

Not to mention that this was all happening while Ichigo was using his Bankai, which had the sole effect of speeding up his body, perceptions, and reactions. This was another indication of just how fast and powerful his opponent was.

The fact that Grimmjaw hadn't even drawn his sword yet was the worst part of it all.

There had to be some way to defeat this guy! These Arrancar couldn't be completely all-powerful! After everything they had done to hurt Ichigo's friends, there had to be some way to beat them!

But what? Not only had Grimmjaw taken out Rukia with one hit, which Ichigo still hadn't forgiven him for, but he had been able to totally shrug off Zangetsu even when hit directly with the blade, and he had inflicted this much damage just with his bare hands.

He wasn't able to think on this much longer, as the Arrancar suddenly stopped his barrage of punches. Dazed, Ichigo tried to make his eyes focus on his opponent and he swayed in place, trying for a moment to lift his sword to defend himself. Grimmjaw just smirked and, with a long yell, pulled back and punched upward.

Ichigo suddenly found himself flying from the force of the hit. _Good_, he thought distractedly. _There's some distance between us. Maybe I can try to use that to my advantage..._ But Grimmjaw simply used some form of shunpo to appear above him, kicking him back down again so that he slammed into the ditch that had been created when he had landed there before.

The attack ceased and Ichigo peered through the dust that was now flying everywhere, trying to make sure he knew where his opponent was so he wouldn't be surprised. Finally, he spotted his vague form, standing casually in the air where he had last appeared.

"Is that all there is to a Bankai?" Grimmjaw sounded bored and a little annoyed. "Don't disappoint me, Shinigami! Is your speed the only thing that your Bankai increases?"

With a scowl, Ichigo dug Zangetsu into the ground and used it as leverage to pull himself to his feet. Pulling his sword free, he heard Grimmjaw call out to him again. As quickly as he could manage with his injuries, he readied Zangetsu, using the slowly settling dust as cover for his attack.

"Getsuga Tenshou!" A wave of red-tinged black emanated from Ichigo's sword and hit the unprepared Arrancar directly.

Breathing heavily, Ichigo surveyed the damage. Grimmjaw was still standing, though now he had both arms up to cover his face. Ichigo's attack had left a wide burn mark up his bare chest, on both wrists, and a little on the left side of his head.

"What was that!?" Grimmjaw smirked, lowering his arms. "Ulquiorra didn't tell me about that move, Shinigami."

Still feeling exhausted, Ichigo pulled his face into a smirk to match Grimmjaw's. "Still disappointed, Arrancar?"

Grimmjaw seemed to find this amusing, laughing loudly. "Bring it on, Shinigami! Now I can say there's a reason to kill you!"

Ichigo's hands tightened on Zangetsu and he gave a small chuckle. He was about to respond, when suddenly he was interrupted.

'_Ichigo... What are you smirking about?_' Ichigo's expression abruptly changed to one of shock as he realized that there were tendrils of black creeping across his vision. Of all the times for him to try to take over, he had to pick now?!

Closing his eyes for a moment, Ichigo could even see him; a mirror of his own face with the hollow mask half formed across the left side. '_You seem pretty sure of yourself..._' The hollow laughed at him.

Ichigo's hand rose to the left side of his own face and he focused his energy inward, trying to force the hollow down. "_Wait... Just a moment longer..._"

The hollow just laughed again. '_How far do you think you can get on your own?_' he taunted. '_You're weak, Ichigo!_'

Ichigo's temper flared. "_I'm not weak!_" he snapped. "_I can do this!_"

'_You're joking, right?_' The hollow smirked. '_You're pathetic! You couldn't do a thing when he attacked Rukia, and you can't do a thing now! Some great protector you are, Ichigo!_'

Ichigo knew he was right, and he felt his rage—both at his inner hollow and at himself—grow all the more for it. Rational thought had nothing to do with what happened next.

"_You think you can do better? I'd like to see you try!_" With one swift movement, Ichigo released the spirit energy he had been using to hold the hollow back, moved aside, and shoved as hard as he could.

Ichigo's hollow very abruptly found himself in control.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, as he realized what Ichigo had done, a smirk grew on his face. "Ha! You're such an idiot!"

Above him, Grimmjaw suddenly grew tense as he noticed the change in Ichigo's spiritual pressure and the mask beginning to form on his face. "Now what are you-"

But suddenly there was no more time for words.

With a scream of joy, the hollow leapt skyward and slashed out with Zangetsu, releasing a black Getsuga Tenshou without saying the name. Grimmjaw barely reacted in time, gaining another wide mark on one arm, but avoiding the direct hit.

The hollow was already above him, though, swinging his sword in wide haphazard arcs and releasing several black Getsugas at a time, laughing wildly. Grimmjaw twisted quickly to avoid them as they spiraled around and headed towards him. The attacks hit the ground, cracking a wide crater into the cement and causing more rubble and dust to fly into the air.

Grimmjaw waved a hand in front of himself to clear the dust and he laughed aloud, a large grin spreading on his face. "Very interesting, Shinigami! You really are full of surprises, aren't you?"

His question went unanswered as the hollow sprang at him from the side, appearing out of the dust and cackling madly, releasing another black Getsuga that Grimmjaw once again only barely managed to dodge.

The hollow flash-stepped to one side, then lunged forward, bringing Zangetsu up for an actual physical attack, aiming for the Arrancar's head. Grimmjaw finally unsheathed his sword, bringing it up to knock Zangetsu off to the side.

There wasn't even a moment of hesitation or surprise at the block. The hollow spun around, using the momentum Grimmjaw had given Zangetsu to attack from a different direction. The two exchanged several quick sword blows, then both leapt back.

Looking over the damage, the hollow laughed. The hollow was unscathed except for the injuries that Ichigo had received previously. Grimmjaw, on the other hand, had several long, shallow cuts up his chest and on both arms. His coat was ripped in a few places as well and a small amount of blood was running down the side of his face.

"You see, Ichigo! This is why I will always be stronger than you!" the hollow shouted, grinning madly. He lunged at Grimmjaw again, firing off yet another black Getsuga Tenshou. "You give up too easily, Ichigo!"

Grimmjaw scowled, ducking under the blast. "Who the heck are you talking to, Shinigami? Are you crazy or something?"

"Ha!" The hollow smirked, flash-stepping right up in front of Grimmjaw, swinging Zangetsu at his head. Grimmjaw parried the attack and jumped back, immediately dodging two more Getsugas and deflecting a third with his sword.

"Whatever." Grimmjaw smirked. "I don't care. All Iknow is that I am_definitely_ going to kill you now!" He held his zanpakutou out in front of him and laughed. "Enough defense. From now on, I'm attacking full out!"

The hollow only snickered at this, holding Zangetsu out level toward the Arrancar in a mimic of his own pose. This succeeded in making Grimmjaw annoyed, and he lunged at the hollow with a yell.

His sword never even got near him. A hand had reached out and caught hold of the blade, stopping Grimmjaw in his tracks. "Enough, Grimmjaw."

Grimmjaw whirled on the newcomer and the hollow lowered Zangetsu slowly, curious. "Tousen?" Grimmjaw bit out the name. "Why are you here?"

"Why, you ask? You really don't know?" Tousen's face showed no emotion at all. "You take it upon yourself to invade the real world, mobilize five Arrancar, then lose them in battle..."

Tousen released his hold on Grimmjaw's blade as he spoke and walked slowly around behind him. "You are in violation of your orders. You understand, don't you? Aizen-sama is furious, Grimmjaw."

With a flick of his wrist, Tousen opened up a portal. "Come. Your punishment will be decided in Hueco Mundo."

Grimmjaw looked murderous. "You stopped my fight for this!? This was just starting to get interesting!" He turned his back on the former captain and leveled his sword at the hollow again, preparing to attack him anyway.

The hollow simply smirked, laying Zangetsu casually on his shoulder. "Looks like somebody's in trouble, Arrancar," he taunted.

"Shut up! I'm going to _kill_ you!" Grimmjaw snapped, lunging forward.

His blade met empty air as the hollow simply flash-stepped backward. "You'd better do as Tousen says, _Arrancar_, and go home to your precious Aizen-sama. You wouldn't want to make him_ ang_ry, would you?"

"Shut up!" Grimmjaw yelled again. He prepared to attack again, but Tousen laid a hand on his shoulder.

"The longer you delay, the worse your punishment will be," Tousen said dangerously.

With a growl, Grimmjaw spun angrily and stormed into the portal. Tousen followed. As the portal began to close around them, Grimmjaw turned his head back. "Wewill finish this fight, Shinigami! Until then, don't go forgetting my name! Grimmjaw Jaggerjack!"

"I look forward to it," the hollow smirked. "Sayonara, Grimmjaw."

The portal closed.

Ichigo hesitated, unsure what to do now. He'd been watching the whole battle, of course, from behind his own eyes.

He'd hated the feeling of being out of control, of seeing an attack coming and wanting to dodge, only to find himself moving in the opposite direction than he'd intended. Then figuring out a moment later that the hollow's movement had completely avoided a blow that he would have had to block with his sword if he had moved how he wanted. He hated to admit it, but behind the hollow's random berserker attacks, he did obviously know what he was doing...

A few times during the battle, he'd wanted to try to seize control again. There were several perfect opportunities when the hollow's attention hadn't been on him and he would have been able to succeed... But at the same time, it hadn't seemed right...

Every other time the hollow had taken control, it had been by force, so Ichigo felt perfectly justified in fighting for control. But this time, whether it had truly been his intention or not, Ichigo had _given_ the hollow control. Wrestling to take back something that he had freely given up... it didn't seem right.

Now, however, the battle was over. There was nobody left to fight. What would happen now?

The hollow was simply standing there, his head tilted to one side and his eyes half closed. He had a serious, almost calculating expression on his face, and he appeared to be mentally watching Ichigo to see what he would do next.

Well, one thing was for sure, Ichigo wanted control back. He just wasn't sure how to go about doing that. He supposed he could just ask, and then if the hollow didn't give back control, then Ichigo could be justified in fighting him for it...

"_Ano... I-_"

"Che!" The hollow cut him off, lowering Zangetsu with a grin on his face. "Don't bother embarrassing yourself." He turned and dropped from where he'd been standing to land gently on the cracked pavement below. "It's boring here. See you later, Ichigo."

With that, Ichigo was thrust back into control again. The mask on his face shattered and all of the exhaustion from before flooded back into him. Ichigo swayed for a moment, then fell to his knees, breathing heavily.

He wasn't sure how long he stayed down like that, but eventually he heard footsteps heading his direction. Slowly, he pulled himself back up to his feet and glanced over to see Renji standing there.

"... So the Arrancar left, huh?" Renji asked softly, taking in Ichigo's rather beat up appearance. Ichigo just made a vague noise of affirmation.

"Did you win?"

Ichigo didn't know how to answer that. "I... don't know," he admitted slowly. He looked up at the dark sky. "I really don't know."

Renji watched him silently for a moment, then turned away. "Come on. Let's go meet up with the others. Where's Rukia?"

"Down that way. Come on." Ichigo set off, using shunpo to move faster down the street to where he had left Rukia in the care of that crazy Chappy gikongan. When he found her, he quickly scooped her up and they all headed towards where they could sense Inoue's reiatsu, along with the 10th squad captain and his vice captain.

When they found them, Inoue was in the process of healing Toushiro from the wounds he had received while fighting one of the other five Arrancar who had appeared with Grimmjaw. Matsumoto quickly took Rukia and began basic kidou healing. As soon as Toushiro was in a stable condition, Inoue switched over to healing her.

Quietly, Toushiro and Matsumoto told Ichigo what had happened during their part of the battle, including the explanation of the Arrancar's numbering system and that Ichigo had apparently been fighting an Espada; number 6.

When they were done, it was Ichigo's turn to report. He hesitated, then told them about just the first part of the battle, completely omitting everything with his hollow. "And then Tousen showed up, told Grimmjaw that he was in trouble for coming here against orders or something like that, and they both left..." he finished, somewhat lamely.

The hollow mentally laughed at this, seeming to find Ichigo's new story amusing.

The others obviously realized that Ichigo was leaving parts out of his account; he could tell by the way they watched him. But none of them said anything, instead letting him sit silently watching as Inoue worked on healing Rukia. He was grateful. He really didn't feel like trying to explain his hollow to any of them right now.

Ichigo's frown deepened as he thought. The hollow's words and actions had confused him. He was basically just a regular, bloodthirsty hollow, wasn't he? A twisted version of himself that liked to fight. And yet...

While he had been fighting, the hollow had shouted various insults at him, yes, but somehow his words hadn't seemed quite as harsh as the other times he had taken over. Then, he had given control back to Ichigo without a fight and without Ichigo even saying anything...

If he was just a bloodthirsty hollow... then why did what had happened seem so... human?

Ichigo had always thought of hollows as simply mindless, powerful monsters. But freely giving up control didn't seem like something a 'monster' would do... and if that was so, if his hollow really was more human than Ichigo had given him credit for... Then what was he like as a human, as a person?

Getting to know old man Zangetsu had been odd enough. You wouldn't think that a sword would have much of a personality, but somehow Zangetsu really was his own person. Could the hollow be the same way?

He was going to have to have some sort of face to face talk with his hollow somehow. Before, he had thought of nothing but how to resist the hollow, to force him down... but perhaps that wasn't the only way. Perhaps, like he had with Zangetsu, he could form some kind of alliance with him...

'_Not likely._' The hollow's voice sounded faint, but somewhat amused.

Ichigo decided to ignore that. He knew the hollow could be reasoned with at the very least... Tomorrow, definitely, he would figure out some way to have a real talk with him, somewhere that they wouldn't be interrupted.

Shaking his head, Ichigo sighed loudly. He'd figure something out later. Thinking too much was starting to make his head throb.

He stood, made sure that Rukia and everyone else was going to be okay, then headed back off towards his house alone. One thing was for sure, tomorrow would definitely be interesting...

(Divider)

"Ichi-nii! It's time for lunch!" Yuzu threw open the door to her older brother's room, expecting to find him lying on his bed or sitting at his desk. "It's time for..."

She trailed off as she realized that he wasn't in either of those two places, or in fact anywhere in the room. "Ichi-nii?"

Slightly mystified, she opened his closet and checked inside. Nothing. He wasn't under his bed either, or hiding under the covers, though she could have sworn she heard something when she moved them.

"Karin-chan! Ichi-nii is missing!" Yuzu turned and left the room, searching out her twin sister.

Karin, standing in the hall, didn't seem to care. "So what? Ichi-nii wanders off on his own all the time. He'll come back eventually."

"Who will come back eventually?" Rukia had heard the last bit as she walked up the stairs.

Yuzu looked worried. "Ichi-nii is gone. Rukia-chan, do you know where he is?"

Rukia's eyes widened. "Ichigo is... But why would he leave without telling anyone where he was going?"

Karin rolled her eyes. "What do you mean, why? He never tells us where he's going..."

"Well, yes, but he usually tells _me._" She hurried past the two and went into Ichigo's room, searching for any sign of anything out of the ordinary.

She found something; sitting on Ichigo's desk was a sheet of paper with writing on it. She hurried over and picked it up. It was a note from Ichigo.

"Rukia, Don't worry about me, I went for a walk. Don't bother looking for me. I'm fine, and I'll be home later. –Ichigo."

Rukia frowned. For one thing, it was rather unlike Ichigo to leave notes like this. Usually, he would have just gone down and told her himself that he was leaving. Unless he hadn't been able to find her... But she had just been downstairs...

No, more likely, Ichigo just didn't want anybody following him, and he didn't want to have to explain anything either...

Closing her eyes, she concentrated on Ichigo's reiatsu. As usual, it was so diffused throughout the city that she couldn't tell exactly where he was. But she could sense his general location, and he did seem to be simply wandering around, not fighting or anything. He must be okay, then...

Well, if he didn't want her following him, then she'd hang back for now. She would, however, do her best to keep an eye on his whereabouts using his reiatsu. Or as much as she could, with his wild control of it...

Turning back to Yuzu and Karin, who were at the doorway watching her in slight confusion, she smiled. "He left a note, he says he'll be back later. We can eat without him."

Karin shook her head. "I told you so. Come on." She and Yuzu left the room and started heading down the stairs.

Rukia started to leave too, but paused to look out the window, thinking to herself._Ichigo... You'd better not be doing anything stupid..._ She left the room and went downstairs.

(Divider)

Ichigo sighed. Trying to find a place where he could talk to his hollow without being interrupted was harder than it seemed. This was a big enough town, but it also had a lot of people...

He had briefly considered asking Urahara if he could use his basement, since the training grounds would be perfect in case something went wrong... But that would require explaining to Urahara why he wanted to use it, and Ichigo didn't want to involve anyone else in his problems, especially Urahara.

So mostly, he just walked, half hoping that he would simply stumble upon a place that would work.

The various parks in Karakura were out; while they had the wide, open space he wanted, they were usually packed with people. The same was true for most of the other places he had ended up.

Eventually, he found himself standing in the clearing where the Arrancar had first appeared. The Shinigami still hadn't gotten around to filling in the giant hole in the ground, and the air was thick with leftover tension from the battle, making the whole place feel ominous.

It was perfect. Not only had the residents of Karakura started avoiding this place since the attack, but the lingering reiatsu from the battle would help mask his own reiatsu at least a little, so Rukia and the other shinigami wouldn't be able to find him as easily.

Feeling accomplished, Ichigo skirted the ditch and sat down underneath a nearby tree, facing away from the clearing. Leaning up against it, he closed his eyes.

_Now what?_ Ichigo suddenly realized that he'd been worrying so much about where he could go to talk, that he hadn't really thought about what to talk about...

The hollow was snickering at him.

"_Give me a break._" Ichigo scowled. "_What are you _supposed_ to say to a voice that lives inside your head?_"

'_You could just say nothing. Nobody ever said I actually wanted to talk to you, idiot._'

Ichigo ignored this and instead concentrated on figuring out something to talk about. What had he talked about with Zangetsu at first?

Well, the first time they'd met, Ichigo's mind had been falling apart, so very few words had been exchanged... The next time was when Ichigo learned Zangetsu's name and... oh.

"_Hey, hollow? I know Byakuya already kind of asked you this, but... what's your name?_"

For a moment, there was no response. Then the hollow finally appeared in his mental vision, arms folded in irritation. '_I'll give you the same answer I gave him: "I ain't got a name." You should already know that._'

For some reason, this annoyed Ichigo. "_Well, what do you want me to call you, then? I can't just keep saying 'hollow' over and over..._"

The hollow laughed. '_That's what I _am_, dimwit._'

"_But it's not a name! Everybody needs something to be called. Even with Kon, as irritating as he is, we eventually gave him a name so that we could call him something other than just Mod Soul..._"

'_And what a great name you gave him, too,_' the hollow said dryly.'_An abbreviation of kaizo konpaku, or Modified Soul. How original. _So_ much better than _just_ Mod Soul._'

Ichigo scowled again. "_Shut up. I never said I was good at giving people names. Just that you need one._"

'_Listen, Ichigo._' The hollow smirked. '_The only person who will ever have need to call me anything is you, and I honestly don't care what you call me._'

That brought Ichigo up short. The hollow had a point. Still, he had just as good as given Ichigo permission to call him anything he wanted, so he supposed he could just come up with something... "_Fine, if you won't give me something to call you, then _I'll_ give you a name... What about Hichigo?_"

The hollow snorted. '_That's the most original thing you could come up with? Adding an 'h' to the beginning of your own name?_'

Ichigo shrugged. "_Well, you're basically a hollow version of me, so take the 'h' from hollow and-_"

'_I get it._' The hollow rolled his eyes again, smirking. '_Are you done yet?_'

"_No._"

'_You're a stubborn idiot, Ichigo._'

Ichigo ignored that. Instead, he focused on the next thing he'd been wondering about. "_You know, Hichigo, this entire time, you've done nothing but insult me. Why do you hate me so much?_"

'_Why do I hate you?_' Hichigo repeated, incredulous. He laughed. '_Isn't it obvious?_'

Annoyed, Ichigo frowned. "_Maybe to you, but mind explaining it to me?_"

Hichigo shook his head with a sigh. '_I keep forgetting how stupid you are,_' he grinned. '_Think about it, Ichigo! I'm ten times stronger than you are, plus you're a complete _idiot_, and yet which of the two of us gets to be in control?_'

Oh. Ichigo pondered this for a moment. "_You hate me because I have control over my own body?_"

'_It's because you're weak, Ichigo!_' Hichigo yelled suddenly, smirking. '_You having control wouldn't bother me so much if you actually deserved it. But you don't! You're so weak, it's pathetic!_'

Ichigo scowled. "_I'm not weak,_" he protested. "_I beat Byakuya, didn't I?_"

'_With my help,_' Hichigo said dryly, folding his arms.

"_Kenpachi, then._"

'_Also with my help._' Hichigo's smirk returned. '_Twice. And even then it ended in a draw._'

Ichigo grimaced. "_I beat Kariya on my own..._" he tried again.

Hichigo merely shook his head. '_Listen, Ichigo... Can you tell me what the difference between a king and his horse is?_'

The sudden topic change caught Ichigo off guard. "_What? A king and his... horse?_"

'_Right. And don't go giving me some stupid kiddy answer like 'one has two legs and the other has four,' or something like that._' Hichigo smirked. '_If their forms and abilities are exactly the same, why does one rise to the top and become King while the other is left to be the horse and carry the King?_'

Ichigo blinked. He wasn't sure where the hollow was going with this riddle, but he figured it must have something to do with his question...

'_There's only one answer,_' Hichigo said quietly when Ichigo didn't give one. Grinning, he yelled it out. '_Instinct!_'

"_Instinct?_" Ichigo frowned. "_The instinct for what?_"

Hichigo smirked. '_In order for two identical beings to gain the power they need to become king, they must search for more battles, more power. They thirst for battle and live to mercilessly crush their enemies! Deep within the body, there lies a honed instinct to kill, to slaughter! The more battles one fights, the more power they gain, so following this instinct naturally leads them to power!_

_But you don't have that pure, base instinct! Instead, You try to defeat your enemies with logic, and you always need a reason to cut down your opponents! And it doesn't work! You're trying to cut them with a sheathed sword! That's why you will always be weaker than me, Ichigo! You don't have the right instincts to gain power!_'

Hichigo paused, a serious expression on his face for once. '_And I can't take it. I hate being forced to carry a King who is weaker than I am. I'm not going to sit back and tolerate that kind of coexistence._'

Oh. It was back to that again. Ichigo frowned. "_Okay, I can understand that. I guess I'd hate me too in your position... So, what do you want me to do?_"

Hichigo laughed. '_What do I want!? I want you to get out of the way and let the stronger of the two of us be King, the way it should be!_'

"_Sorry, but I can't sit back and tolerate _that_ kind of coexistence. This is still my body,_" Ichigo said dryly. "_I have a huge potential for growth; everyone says so. So what I should do is train, and get stronger than you. Then you won't have anything to complain about._"

'_Impossible!_' Hichigo smirked. '_I just told you, Ichigo, you don't have the right instincts to get stronger than me!_'

"_But you can at least give me the chance to try!_" Ichigo argued. "_Train me! Teach me to be stronger! If you're right, and I don't have the right instincts for it, you'll have lost nothing, and I'll let you have control. But if you're wrong, and I _can_ become stronger than you... Then we'll know for sure that I deserve to be King._"

Hichigo raised an eyebrow, still smirking. '_Ichigo, the two of us are enemies; rivals for control. You're saying you want me to help my rival to become stronger than me? You're crazy._'

"_I'm saying that if I were to give up control now, you'd always live in doubt, wondering if you really deserve control, or if I could have become stronger than you with more training,_" Ichigo pushed. "_This way, there's no doubt. I either can become stronger, or I don't have the right instincts for it. Either way, no more weak King._"

Hichigo considered this. '_You really are pathetic, Ichigo. Trying to gain whatever advantages you can. You know that if we were to fight one on one now, I would beat you._'

Ichigo said nothing, waiting for the hollow to either accept or refuse.

There was a long pause. Then finally, Hichigo laughed, shaking his head. '_I don't know who's crazier; you for suggesting this, or me for agreeing to it._'

Ichigo smiled.

'_Now don't get any dumb ideas, Ichigo. I have some conditions. First, I'm not going to keep training you forever. At some point, the two of us will fight, and the winner will be King._'

"_Right,_" Ichigo agreed, nodding. "_And we should probably settle this sometime before the Arrancar attack this winter._"

Hichigo made a dismissive noise. '_The fight will take place at my discretion. Be prepared for it any time; I may not even warn you beforehand._' He grinned.

Ichigo frowned at this, but nodded again.

'_The second condition is this; if you're going to be training under me, then you need to do everything I tell you to do, got it? This includes letting me take over if I need to._'

Now Ichigo shook his head. "_I reserve the right to refuse to do something if I think it will hurt anybody. And I'm not going to let you take over just any time you want, either. Only if we're actually currently training._"

Hichigo laughed. '_You say that as if you don't trust me, Ichigo!_' he smirked. '_I don't care. Refuse any part of my training that you don't like. Just know, I _will_ be trying to make you stronger, Ichigo, and you skipping parts will just lead to you being weaker._'

"_Fine._" Ichigo nodded again. "_Is that it?_"

'_Sounds about right to me._' Hichigo chuckled to himself. '_Now, what would your friends think if they knew you were going to train with a hollow?_'

Ichigo shrugged. "_Who knows? I'm not going to tell them. They don't need to know. Anyway, when are we going to start this training? And where?_"

'_Where isn't a problem. I'll just take you inside your mind, as long as you don't mind a few of your buildings getting destroyed now and then..._' Hichigo laughed.

"_Um..._" Ichigo hesitated. "_About that, what exactly happens when stuff in my mind is destroyed?_"

'_Nothing._' Hichigo shrugged. '_It rebuilds itself. Most of the time, anyway._'

"_Oh. All right, then. And when?_"

Hichigo smirked. '_Now._'

Ichigo suddenly found himself falling through a black void, traveling into his mind. He fell for what seemed like a long time, and then suddenly he was standing on the familiar sideways buildings in his mind.

Standing on the edge of the building a short distance away, Hichigo watched him, an amused expression on his face. "Ready, Ichigo?"

Ichigo smirked. "As ready as I'll ever be. What's first?"

(Divider)

Rukia stared out the window of Ichigo's sisters' room. It was now quite dark outside, the twins were both asleep, and yet Ichigo hadn't come back yet.

She wasn't horribly worried about him, to be honest. She had been tracking his reiatsu, and almost 3 hours ago she had noticed that he had stopped wandering around. He had apparently been sitting in the same spot since then. He had probably fallen asleep.

She supposed that she should go find him and wake him up. Sleeping outside anywhere couldn't be comfortable, and he had already missed both lunch and dinner, so he was bound to be hungry too.

Would he be mad at her for having gone looking for him even when he had specifically said not to? She considered this and decided that yes, he would be mad. She also decided that she didn't care.

She exited the room carefully, trying not to wake up Karin and Yuzu. Then, she headed to the kitchen and started grabbing leftovers from dinner and putting them in a bag. If she was going to make Ichigo mad, she might as well bring him some food to make up for it.

This completed, she headed out the door and started walking in the general direction of where she could sense Ichigo.

She had only traveled a few blocks when she suddenly froze, her eyes widening. Ichigo's reiatsu had just... disappeared?

Focusing as hard as she could, Rukia tried to locate him. His reiatsu was still lingering all over town, the way it usually did, but that main solid core that was Ichigo appeared to be gone.

Had this been any other person, Rukia might have assumed that he had simply hidden his reiatsu. This, however, was Ichigo. He even admitted himself that he sucked at control, so if it was gone, that either meant that somebody else was hiding him, or that he was...

"Ichigo!" She broke into a dead run, almost dropping the bag in her panic. She had no way of knowing exactly where Ichigo was, but she ran anyway, heading towards the area where she had last sensed him.

If something had happened to him...

Suddenly, her cell phone went off. She pulled it out quickly, still running. Was there a hollow? Was that why Ichigo's reiatsu had...?

But no, it was a phone call from Hitsugaya-taichou. She answered it. "Hello?"

Hitsugaya got right to the point. "Rukia, did something happen to Ichigo just now? His reiatsu just-"

"I know, I'm trying to find him."

"Wasn't he with you?"

"No, he left about mid-day on his own. I had just been about to go find him anyway, but now I've no idea where he is. Do you have an exact location for me?"

There was a pause and some background noise, then Hitsugaya continued. "Yeah, I'll send his last known whereabouts to your phone. You're pretty close to him already. Call me when you have details."

"Right." Rukia hung up, slowing to a walk as she waited for the information.

The phone beeped and she flipped it open again, scanning the GPS map that had appeared on the screen. Hitsugaya had been right, she was close; in fact, she'd almost passed him.

Rukia ran at full speed again, soon coming to a very familiar clearing. It took her a moment to recognize it in the dark, but she soon realized that it was where the Arrancar had first appeared in Karakura town. Why would Ichigo have come here?

She scanned the area, both with her eyes and with her senses, trying to locate him. Soon she spotted him, slumped up against a tree.

"Ichigo!" she called, panic evident in her voice. He didn't respond to her call, and she still couldn't feel his reiatsu.

Quickly, she dashed over and knelt beside him. She was relieved and a little perplexed to find that he seemed to be perfectly fine. No injuries, just unconscious. And if she concentrated hard, she found that she _could_ sense his reiatsu after all; it had simply diminished to a point that it seemed like he had no spiritual powers whatsoever.

She shook him slightly, feeling frustrated. "Ichigo! Wake up, Ichigo!"

Abruptly, a wave of spiritual energy knocked her away from him and she fell to the ground, wincing. A split second later, Ichigo pushed himself slowly into a sitting position, groaning slightly and rubbing the back of his neck with one hand.

Rukia stared at him in shock. The wave of reiatsu had been his, and now it swirled around him in its usual uncontrolled manner, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

"Ichigo?"

He had apparently not realized that anybody else was there, because at the sound of her voice, his eyes flew open and he stared up at her in surprise.

Rukia choked back a scream. The whites of his eyes had turned black, and the pupils were a deep gold. They were hollow eyes.

"Rukia?" Ichigo blinked and his eyes returned suddenly to their normal brown color. "Wha... What are you doing here?"

She stared into his eyes for a moment longer, watching as his confusion turned into concern when she didn't answer. Had she just imagined the hollow eyes? They'd only been there for a split second...

"Are you okay, Rukia?" he asked slowly.

Without warning, she smacked him upside the head as hard as she could. "Am _I_ okay!? I should be asking _you_ that question, idiot! You don't come home for hours on end, and suddenly your reiatsu completely vanishes! What's going on here, Ichigo? I thought you'd managed to kill yourself or something!"

Slowly, Ichigo rubbed the side of his head where she'd hit him. "Sorry," he mumbled. Then he blinked. "Wait, my reiatsu completely vanished? So it worked?"

She hit him again.

"Ow... Hey, what are you doing wasting time worrying about me, anyway? After last night's attack, you should have known I'd be training!"

Rukia scowled at him. Same old Ichigo.

"Well, sorry for caring!" Standing, she thrust the bag at him and he caught it with some confusion. "Here, I brought some food. We'd better head home. You've been gone all day and your family's worried too."

Ichigo stared at her, then looked down at the bag. "Food? Hey, if you thought I was in trouble, you wouldn't have spent time packing food! You were planning on ignoring my note and looking for me anyway!" he accused.

"So what if I was?" Rukia began to walk away, ignoring the fuming teen behind her. Without looking back, she pulled out her cell again and called Hitsugaya.

"What happened, Rukia?" he wanted to know.

Rukia glanced back at Ichigo. "False alarm, I guess. Ichigo says he was training."

"Well, I was!" Ichigo protested. He glared at her for a moment before rummaging through the bag to see what she'd brought.

Hitsugaya sounded vaguely annoyed. "Training?" he asked. "What was he doing?"

"No idea," Rukia shrugged. "He was unconscious when I got here."

"So that's it, then? Mass panic because Ichigo conveniently forgot to tell us that he was going to attempt something like this?"

Rukia smirked. "Pretty much." Then, glancing back at Ichigo again, she lowered her voice so the other teen wouldn't hear. "I'm going to keep a close watch on him from now on, though. Something strange is going on, and I doubt he's about to tell us what it is..."

"Agreed."

(Divider)

"_So how's that?_" Ichigo asked smugly as he followed Rukia back towards home. "_Apparently, I've got this controlling my reiatsu thing down well enough to scare the crud out of Rukia and the rest of them. I_told_ you I had huge potential for growth._"

Hichigo laughed derisively. '_Don't get overconfident, idiot! Controlling your reiatsu isn't a skill that can be learned in battle. It's simply a basic skill—one that you conveniently skipped over previously—that you'll need to continue your training. You've proved nothing so far!_'

Ichigo only smiled.

(Divider)

Yay, finished!

... Right, all this thinking is so out of character for Ichigo it's not even funny. But he needed to have thought this stuff or else my story would have gone nowhere... (sigh) Just pretend somebody snuck in and gave Ichigo an intelligence shot or something...

The scene with Yuzu was taken almost directly from the anime, except I twisted it by having Ichigo leave his note, and taking Isshin out of it. Ichigo's note is a continuation of his intelligence shot. u.u Seriously, if you don't want someone to follow you, and you know you're highly traceable, you don't just leave without saying anything; that makes people look for you. Idiot.

But I put the scene in mostly because Yuzu amuses me. Seriously, why look under the bed? XD And poor Kon... How ironic that Yuzu is the most harmless person in the whole show, and Kon's afraid of her...

I'll have you know, the conversation between Ichigo and Hichigo was a pain to write. Both of them are out of character; Ichigo because of his intelligence shot and Hichigo because I had to make him agree to this whole dumb thing... And it was a pain trying to make it flow correctly. I wanted to get the whole King and his horse speech in there, but I wasn't sure how to modify it for a just talking sort of deal rather than an I'm-currently-killing-you sort of deal... So, you get what you get. Just pretend that it works. XD

On another note, I've decided that I hate mind link conversations. Trying to write everything in italics all the time is horrible... Especially since I randomly decided that everything Ichigo says is in "..." and everything Hichigo says is in '...'. Confusing...

So anyway... ... On the one hand, I'm glad I finally got this written out, and I'm definitely glad that it turned out at least vaguely the way I'd hoped it would. ... On the other hand, I wish it still wasn't done, I was having fun writing it. XD

Oh well. I guess the next thing to do is to try writing out another random Bleach plotbunny that's been bothering me. XD

Anyway, thanks for reading! Please leave a review! Comments, constructive criticism, and loff is much appreciated!


	2. Ridiculously Long Training Montage

Okay, first off, wow

Okay, first off, wow. I had no idea Bleach was so popular. XD 

This story is one review away from having more reviews than White Magician, which is a chaptered story that's been up a _long_ time. That makes it the fifth most reviewed on story I've written (and 5 reviews away from being the third). It has passed both Millennium Magic _and_ Where's Yugi in favorites, making it _the most_ favorited. It has the most C2's too. And on top of all that, it almost has more alerts on it than _all_ of my other stories _combined_. Which is particularly odd since I'm sure I mentioned it might be a one-shot. (We see how that turned out XD) 

So, Thank You! The feedback from this story has shocked me and made me happy. I dunno how much of this is me writing this well and how much of it is simply a show of just how much more popular Bleach is than Yu-Gi-Oh, but still, it's awesome!

Just so you know, though, I'm not continuing this story just for the sake of continuing it. (shifty eyes) the plotbunnies wouldn't leave me alone, and neither would my sister. XD The fact that my attempt at a Bleach/Twilight crossover totally bombed didn't help. So I'm writing this instead.

Oh, important note... With the amount of people who added this story to Ichi/Hichi communities, as well as mentions of it in reviews, I really feel I must say... This is not intended to be a yaoi fic. In fact, if you've read any of my stories, you'll know that I just simply don't write romance at all, and in particular, not yaoi... (sweatdrop) So, sorry...?

Kay, well I've been told I need to work at keeping my author notes short... XD I'm not good at that. So, Thanks again to B/k for betaing this for me! She continues to be awesome! 

And thanks to my new roommate, Katie, for helping me to come up with random ideas for the chapter. ... _very_ random ideas. XD 

And thanks to Shells for her ideas too. Without her, the giant battle sequence at the end would not exist.

Aaand, now I'll start the chapter!

(Divider)

Ichigo was sitting on the side of a building. His zanpakutou, still sheathed, was lying a few feet away from him. His eyes were closed and his face held a mixed look of concentration and irritation as he attempted to keep his spirit energy pushed down into a semblance of control.

Slowly, he opened his eyes and looked up at his inner hollow, who was sitting and watching him from a short distance away. "I'm bored," he stated blandly. "How long do we have to do this?"

Hichigo rolled his eyes. "Until you can do it quickly, and hang onto it without having to think about it," he replied in the same tone.

Moving himself carefully out of the position that he had been sitting in for the past hour or so, Ichigo groaned, stretching his stiff muscles. "I don't understand why I need to, though. I mean, sure, if I mask my spirit energy, I'm not so easy to locate, but I don't see how that'll help in the middle of a battle. And it's not like Zangetsu is a kidou-based sword or anything, so I don't have to worry about focusing spirit energy for that either..."

Hichigo smirked. "So, you're giving up already?"

"I didn't say that," Ichigo protested. "Just that I don't understand why we're spending so much time with this. Three days doing nothing but suppressing my spirit energy? When I said training, I was thinking more along the lines of sword fighting..."

Hichigo got to his feet and folded his arms, shaking his head at Ichigo. "Do I really have to explain everything to you, Ichigo?"

"An explanation would be nice, yes." Ichigo said with a scowl. "So skip all the 'you're so stupid' insults and tell me already."

Hichigo laughed. "Fine, then. I've got four reasons why you need to learn better control of your spiritual energy before we can get anywhere else. Number one: Tell me, how does your Bankai work?" He paused, awaiting a response.

"Um..." Ichigo frowned. "Well, according to Byakuya, instead of creating a giant sword of some kind like most Bankais do, my Bankai compresses the destructive power into a smaller than usual form, which then makes it so I can move at high speeds while still using the Bankai's destructive power."

"Exactly." Hichigo smirked again. "So you can move fast simply because your energy is compressed into one spot. Now, what exactly are you doing when you suppress your spirit energy?"

Ichigo got it. "Oh. I'm pulling all of my spiritual energy into one spot. Compressing it. Are you saying that if I do this while I'm in Bankai, I'll move even faster?"

"Right." Suddenly, Hichigo reached up and grabbed the black hilt of his version of Zangetsu. The sheath slipped off and, with blinding speed, Hichigo suddenly leapt at Ichigo.

Caught completely off guard, Ichigo fumbled and dropped his hold on his spiritual energy. He scrambled to grab his own sword and was only just barely able to bring it up in time to prevent Hichigo from chopping an arm off. Ichigo's spirit energy, now free of his hold, exploded outward, knocking both of them backwards several feet.

"So," Hichigo continued as if nothing had happened, pulling back and sheathing his zanpakutou again, "If you want to do that, you're going to have to be able to keep your spirit energy under control, no matter what happens to you."

Ichigo scowled, breathing hard. "A little warning would have been nice!"

"I was proving a point," Hichigo shot back. "Obviously, you don't have this down yet."

"...Okay fine, I get it." Ichigo closed his eyes and carefully pulled his spiritual energy back into control. When he finally had it, he returned his attention to Hichigo. "All right, so what's the next reason?"

Hichigo smirked. "Getsuga Tenshou," he said simply. "You say that Zangetsu isn't a kidou-based sword, and mostly you're correct. However, Getsuga Tenshou _is_ a kidou-based attack, and its strength depends on how much spiritual energy you feed into it. Normally, you don't pay much attention to the kidou part of it; you just pour a random amount of spirit energy into Zangetsu and force him to deal with it. But if you were to _control_ the amount of spirit energy..." 

"Then Zangetsu wouldn't have to try and sort out the right amount, so I could attack faster," Ichigo finished. "Right?"

"Not just that. You could control the size of the attack." Hichigo grabbed Zangetsu's hilt again and Ichigo tensed, but his hollow turned to face away from him. 

"Small blasts to be released as you swing your sword normally..." He swung Zangetsu casually, releasing a light blue wave that dissipated a few feet away. 

He swung again, harder, sending out a Getsuga Tenshou that put a crater in the side of a nearby building. "The regular canyon-forming attacks for stronger or long range attacks...

"Then, huge attacks to completely catch your opponent off guard. Getsuga Tenshou!" Hichigo smirked and swung Zangetsu a third time, releasing a giant blue wave that destroyed three buildings right in a row.

Ichigo blinked slowly. "Oh."

Hichigo rolled his eyes. "Is that all you can say?" he grinned. "Learn to control the amount of spiritual energy you feed into your sword, and you can do that too. Of course, that brings me to my third reason. You don't actually use the Getsuga Tenshou attack correctly."

"What?" Ichigo stared at his hollow. "But you just said it; give spirit energy to Zangetsu and he magnifies it into an attack. What more to it is there?"

Hichigo smirked. "I'll show you what I mean. How far from here is Urahara's shop?"

"Urahara's shop?" Ichigo frowned. "Not far, why?"

"Because I want to try this in the real world. The demonstration will have more impact on solid ground rather than these buildings, and I don't think you want any more random craters in the middle of Karakura town," Hichigo said dryly. "Just ask him if you can use his training grounds for a few minutes; it won't take long."

Ichigo grimaced. "Is this necessary? I really don't want Urahara getting involved in this. He and Rukia both already technically know you exist, and I don't want them getting suspicious..."

Hichigo scoffed. "Whatever happened to 'If I cared about what people thought, I'd have dyed my hair black a long time ago'? Seems you care more than you say you do."

"I don't care what they think. I just don't want to deal with the hassle of trying to convince them that I'm not crazy for training with a hollow," Ichigo sighed, running one hand absently through his hair. "I'd end up wasting time arguing with them. It's easier if they don't know."

Hichigo shrugged, "Fine, then. Don't tell them. Whatever. But go ask Urahara if you can use his training grounds. He won't be able to figure anything out from just five minutes..."

"Fine, fine." Ichigo rolled his eyes. Concentrating hard, he forced himself up and out of his inner world to where he was sitting leaned up against a tree in the same clearing he had come to that first night.

Slowly, he pulled himself to his feet, groaning at how stiff he was. Sitting for hours without moving wasn't doing his back any favors... Ichigo glanced down at his watch. It was about midday, so the shop would still be open... With a shrug, he began to walk.

When he arrived, he found Jinta and Ururu both out front of the shop. Ururu was sweeping. Jinta was obviously supposed to be helping her, but was instead using his broom as a baseball bat.

"Here's the windup, and the pitch! And Jinta-sama slams it right down center field! It's a home run!"

"Jinta-kun, you shouldn't be goofing off..."

"Hey," Ichigo called as he approached, startling the two of them. "Is Sandal-hat here? I need to talk to him."

Jinta nodded. "Yeah, the manager's down in the training room."

"Great, thanks." Ichigo opened the door and entered the shop, heading for the back room where the training room entrance was. Deciding that entering a training room with his human body was a bad idea, he pulled out his badge and used it to change to his shinigami form before jumping down the hole, ignoring the ladder.

He didn't see Urahara right away, but he did see Renji's odd snake Bankai making dust explosions as it hit various rocks a ways away from the entrance, so he headed that direction.

"_Renji's here,_" he commented with a frown. "_If you want to show me something, I'll have to see if I can get him out of here first..._"

He felt Hichigo shrug mentally. '_Whatever._'

As he came closer, he was able to make out who Renji was training with. "Chado?" his frown deepened.

"Ah, Kurosaki-san!" Suddenly, there was Urahara, standing up ahead of him. He had a cheerful look on his face, and he waved his fan at Ichigo. At his feet stood Rinrin, Claude, and Nova in their plushie forms. "Haven't seen you for a while! What brings you here?"

"Well, I wanted to ask you if I could use the training room to try something... Looks like Renji and Chado beat me to it, though," Ichigo said. "What are they doing? Training?"

"Yup!" Rinrin answered for him. "Sado-kun showed up here asking Urahara-san for training, and Urahara-san made Renji-kun do it instead."

Claude shook his head. "Poor Arbarai-san got saddled into doing most of the chores around here, plus this training stuff. Not that I'm complaining, mind, as that means that the rest of us freeloaders aren't being made to work until we drop, but it is very humbling to watch him work so hard when he obviously doesn't want to."

"Really." Ichigo glanced at Urahara. "How did you manage to get Renji of all people to agree to do chores?"

Urahara grinned, hiding half of his face behind his fan. "Oh you know, a little proper incentive, wording things in such a way that he agrees to more than he thinks he's agreeing to, plus a little minor guilt tripping, and voila! You can get Arbarai-san to do anything!"

Ichigo smirked. "Poor Renji. So when do you think they're going to be done?"

"Done?" Urahara blinked at him. "Well, when they get tired, I suppose. Both of them are staying here for the time being, so they haven't been using any set time periods for training."

"If you want to get in some training too, Ichigo, you don't have to wait for us to leave!" Renji called. Ichigo looked up to see that he and Chado were both walking towards him, having temporarily stopped their battle. Chado's arm had returned to its normal state, and Renji had dropped his Bankai. "We can do a three-way free for all."

"Hey, Renji. Hey, Chado," Ichigo greeted them. "Thanks for the offer, but no. Regular training wasn't what I had in mind. I actually wanted to experiment with Getsuga Tenshou, and I figured that putting craters in here was probably better than putting craters in the park..."

Renji smirked at him. "All right then. You still don't have to wait for us to go. We'll stay on this side. Just make sure you don't aim at us."

Ichigo hesitated. When Hichigo had said he wanted to show Ichigo something, he probably meant that he would want Ichigo to let _him_ do it, and that meant a change in reiatsu, plus the hollow eyes, and that mask... "Um... I would... prefer if I did this alone," he said slowly.

Renji's smile faded. Urahara looked faintly surprised. Rinrin, Claude, and Nova stared openly at him. "Alone? As in, you want all of us to leave?" Rinrin demanded.

Ichigo smiled sheepishly. "Well, I don't want to be rude, but... yeah..."

"Why?" Chado asked, looking concerned.

"Um... Well, like I said, I want to experiment with Getsuga Tenshou... Rukia might have told you already, but I've been working on controlling my spiritual energy, and I wanted to try something new with it. But I don't really have a very solid grasp on it yet, and I don't want anybody to get hurt if I end up causing some backlash or something."

"_That was pretty good for making it up off the top of my head just now._" Ichigo mentally sighed to himself with relief.

Renji was giving him a very odd look. "If there's backlash, we'll just duck," he said simply. "Besides, I doubt anything you'll do will be particularly strong at the moment, not when you've spent the last three or four days just sleeping all the time."

"Sleeping?" Ichigo glared at him. "_Sleeping_! Is that what you think I've been doing? Besides, how would you know, anyway? Why does everyone think they have to follow me around all the time?"

"Why do _you_ think you have to isolate yourself all the time?" Renji shot back. "I don't care _what_ you're doing all by yourself. Whatever it is, you could probably accomplish it faster with help, you idiot!"

"I told you, I don't want any-" Ichigo cut off suddenly, his eyes widening as, while he was distracted with his argument, his control over his spiritual energy slipped again. The released energy flared out uncontrollably, causing Renji, Chado and Urahara to flinch visibly, the force sending them sliding backwards a few feet. All three mod souls were sent flying.

Ichigo sat down hard on the ground. "Sorry," he muttered, closing his eyes and rubbing them with the palms of his hands. "Lost it..." He looked up at them all again. "_This_ is why I've been training by_myself_."

Urahara just grinned at him, waving his fan. "Don't worry about it, Kurosaki-san, no harm done. Right?"

Rinrin, Claude, and Nova were already getting to their feet. "We're fine," Rinrin assured him. "Are you okay?"

"That's a _large_ amount of reiatsu you have," Claude moaned pointlessly, rubbing his head slightly. "But everything's still okay, nothing we haven't felt before."

"I'm okay." Nova said simply, dusting himself off.

"Actually, I'm impressed that you were able to hold on to it as long as you did even while talking to us. That level of control isn't something usually displayed by someone without a skilled teacher." Urahara gave Ichigo a meaningful look.

Hichigo mentally smirked at the indirect compliment. Ichigo ignored this. "Joy. Another way I'm unique, then." With a sigh, he got back to his feet. "At any rate, if I lose control like that while I'm doing something with Getsuga Tenshou, I don't want to accidentally hurt anyone. It'll only take a few minutes. Please."

They all glanced around at each other for a moment, then Renji abruptly turned and headed for the entrance. "Fine, then! Come on, Sado. If Ichigo's too _scared_ to have us watching him, then I suppose we can be nice and take a break for a while." 

Ichigo felt his temper flare at the insult. "Scared? You come back here and say that to my face, and I'll show you who's scared!" But the red-haired shinigami just smirked over his shoulder and kept walking. Chado glanced at Ichigo briefly, then nodded to him and followed silently after Renji. 

Urahara smiled at him, his hat shading his eyes so that Ichigo couldn't tell what he was thinking. "Well, I suppose you know yourself best, Kurosaki-san. If a few minutes here is what you need, then I'm happy to provide it for you." He turned, his coat flaring dramatically behind him, and followed the other two.

Rinrin glared at Ichigo. "Usually when you isolate yourself like this, it's because you're brooding over something," she accused. "I hope you haven't been doing anything stupid, Ichigo, or I'll hurt you." With that, she turned and ran after Urahara, dragging Claude and Nova behind her before the former could start blabbing again.

Ichigo sighed as he watched them all go. "_Now they're all mad at me._"

'_So? It made them leave, right?_' Hichigo sounded unconcerned. '_Ready to start?_'

He didn't answer, waiting until he saw Rinrin disappear up the hole and into the shop. Then he turned, reaching up to grab Zangetsu's hilt. "_Sure. What do you want me to do?_"

'_For now, just fire a Getsuga Tenshou like normal. I don't care where you aim it; just make it as powerful as you can._' Hichigo directed.

Ichigo nodded. He focused on his spiritual energy, carefully gathering it all in to himself again. Then he sent as much focused energy into Zangetsu as he could, mimicking what his hollow had done earlier. "Getsuga Tenshou!" he called out, slashing the zanpakutou down suddenly.

The resulting attack was larger than any Ichigo had produced before without using Bankai, and he grinned proudly at the newly formed canyon in the floor of Urahara's training grounds.

'_So you _were_ paying attention to what I was doing._' Hichigo smirked. '_All right, then. My turn._'

Ichigo frowned, but he mentally stepped back and let the hollow take control, releasing his hold on his spiritual energy as he did so. 

Hichigo immediately gathered it up himself, much faster than Ichigo had. Grinning, he took several quick steps off to one side so that he could aim in the same direction as Ichigo's canyon and end up with two parallel ones. He focused his spiritual energy into Zangetsu and very calmly said the name, slashing downward. "Getsuga Tenshou." The wave of blue cut another canyon in the ground.

"Now, what do you see?" Hichigo asked, stepping back.

Ichigo looked from one canyon to the other. "_They look exactly the same,_" he commented. "_They're both the same thickness, same depth, and they both end at about the same length._"

Hichigo nodded. '_Right. I put as much spirit energy as I could into that attack, and yet it turned out exactly the same as yours. Meaning that you have as much mastery of the Getsuga Tenshou attack as I do..._' 

"_But you said..._"

'_You have mastery over it..._' Hichigo repeated, interrupting him. '..._in its normal form._' Smirking, he released his spiritual energy, moved aside and shoved Ichigo back into control. '_Now try the attack again in Bankai._'

Ichigo frowned, but again did as Hichigo said. Bringing Zangetsu into position, he gathered his spiritual energy and forced it through the sword. The white hilt wrap looped itself several times tightly around his right arm. "Ban Kai!"

Now he stood wearing his usual Bankai outfit and holding the much smaller, black version of Zangetsu. He copied Hichigo and took a few steps off to the side, then gathered his spirit energy again. Concentrating hard, he once again focused his spiritual energy into the sword and swung down. "Getsuga Tenshou!"

A red-edged black wave shot forward, cutting another straight canyon for a short distance, then twisted upward and sideways, spiraling around to cut a line of parallel canyons at a diagonal to the others. The canyons were each thicker in size than those the two had created with the original attacks.

Hichigo laughed. '_Good, you even managed to work the spiral in there! That's not bad for just copying me. Now, are you sure that's the strongest you can make your attack?_'

"Copying?" Ichigo scowled. "What?"

'_Which of the two of us was the first to use Getsuga Tenshou while in Bankai?_' Hichigo shot at him, grinning. '_Every attempt you've made at it since then has simply been mimicking what I did; which means that if I didn't use the Getsuga Tenshou to its full abilities at that time, you'd have no idea it could actually get stronger._'

With that, he pushed back into control again, ignoring the surprised noise of protest Ichigo made. With a large grin, Hichigo leapt high into the air and held Zangetsu out in front of him with one hand, bringing the other up to lightly touch the blade. "Getsuga Tenshou."

The attack was less of a wave than it was a giant, pure black bubble of destruction, centering on Hichigo's blade and spreading outward. When the blast cleared away, all hints of the previous canyons were completely gone, erased by the giant crater that had now appeared. Hichigo landed lightly in the bottom of this crater and smirked.

Ichigo was speechless. "_How... but you... what..._" Finally, he managed to piece his words together to form comprehensive sentences. "_How did you do that? What did you do?_"

Hichigo cackled. '_Your problem is that you use your Bankai Getsuga Tenshou in the same way you use your regular one. While that is the correct technique for the regular attack, and it does technically work with the Bankai version, it really was meant to be used as a completely different attack._'

"_And this has to do with controlling my spiritual energy?_" Ichigo asked.

'_Yup! Not just controlling how much you put into the attack, but _how_ you put it in and what you do with it _after_ you release the attack._' Hichigo explained. '_So not only can you have different _sized_ attacks depending on the amount of reiatsu, but your attacks can also have different _forms_, all with the same name, so your opponent can't tell what's coming._'

Ichigo shook his head. "_That's amazing. I never would have guessed there was any more to it..._"

Hichigo just laughed again. '_That's because you're an idiot. But we knew that already._'

"_Mmhmm, right._" Ichigo said distractedly, totally ignoring the hollow's insult. He had just noticed something interesting. "_... Um... Hey, Hichigo? At the risk of sounding more like an idiot, what happened to the mask?_"

Hichigo blinked. '_What? Oh, that._' He grinned, bringing one hand up to rub the side of his face where there was usually a hollow mask. Now, there was nothing.'_I can choose whether or not to actually bring out the hollow mask when I'm in control. Can't do anything about the change in reiatsu or the hollow eyes, but at least you still look like you from a distance._'

"_Oh. Why would you...?_"

Hichigo mentally stepped aside and gave control back to Ichigo again. '_Now for the fourth reason why you should control your spiritual energy. Gather it up and take a look around your surroundings._'

Ichigo shook his head at the sudden switch, but did as he was told. When he had his spiritual energy collected, he opened his eyes and, jumping up out of the crater that his hollow's attack had formed, began to look around. "_What exactly am I looking for?_"

'_Usually, you're horrible at sensing other peoples' reiatsu, right?_' Hichigo asked with a smirk.

Slowly, Ichigo nodded. "_Yeah, so_?"

'_Well, now that you've got your _own_ reiatsu out of your way, _now_ what do you sense?_'

Ichigo concentrated, then frowned in surprise. Renji, Chado, Urahara; he could sense their spiritual energy high above him in the shop, along with Rukia's for some reason. Claude's was a little harder to pick out, but he found he could sense that too. Rinrin and Nova, however...

"_They were watching us?_" Ichigo scowled, glaring over at what appeared to his normal vision to be an innocent-looking rock. "_Rinrin's illusions to make them invisible, Nova to teleport them away if they were about to get hit by something. Clever._"

Hichigo laughed. '_And there I've answered two questions at once._'

Ichigo sighed. "Rinrin, Nova, you can come out, I know you're there," he called.

The air in front of him shimmered and the two Mod-souls, both in gigais and looking somewhat guilty, appeared from the midst of Rinrin's rock illusion. Nova closed the zipper on his mask.

"Sorry, Ichigo," Rinrin said, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment. "I wanted to make sure you were all right. And Renji made a bet that you were just down here sleeping, or being pathetic, or something."

Ichigo snorted. "Yeah, well, I'll beat his head in later."

"When did you manage to get an attack that strong?" Rinrin pointed at the giant crater behind Ichigo. 

He hesitated. Technically, _he_ hadn't done it. "Just today. Dunno if I could do it again. Like I said before, it was just an experiment..."

"Pretty impressive for an experiment. We almost got hit by that, and I thought we were a good distance away..." She trailed off, looking up at Ichigo. "So... are you done experimenting, or should we leave?"

Ichigo shook his head. "Nah, I'm done." He paused for a moment. "_You know, I'm already here... If I keep my spiritual energy in control, could I stay here and train with Renji and Chado? I already hurt their feelings by blowing them off before, and anyway, that seems much more fun than going back to sitting around in the park..._"

Hichigo rolled his eyes. '_Whatever. I was going to have you practice holding your spiritual energy while fighting anyway. Just don't drop it!_' he warned. His face disappeared from Ichigo's mental vision as he went back to Ichigo's inner world.

"Could you tell Renji and Chado to come back down here?" Ichigo asked aloud. "I think I'm going to take them up on their three way free-for-all idea."

Rinrin grinned. "That sounds more like the Ichigo I know. Come on, Nova."

There was a flash of red as Nova teleported the two of them back up to the shop. Soon, Renji, Chado, Urahara, and the three mod souls all jumped down the hole into the training room and started to head towards him. 

Renji, leading the group, looked surprised as he approached. "Did you do that?" he asked, gesturing at the large crater. Urahara whistled appreciatively.

Ichigo shrugged. "It was mostly accidental," he lied. He held Zangetsu out level towards Renji. "So how about that match?"

"You sure you got anything left in you after that?" Renji smirked at him, unsheathing and releasing Zabimaru. "I wouldn't want you to collapse in the middle of a fight."

"Come at me and see," Ichigo said confidently. "I bet you're going to be the one who collapses."

"You talk big for a lazy bum who sleeps all day!"

"Look who's talking, freeloader!"

"What was that, strawberry!"

"You heard me, pineapple-head!"

Rinrin sighed as the argument continued. "Must they argue pointlessly like this every time they meet up with each other?"

Claude shrugged. "Sometimes you get two people who have personalities that clash in just such a way that no matter what happens, the other person will always irritate them for no explainable reason. These two just happen to have personalities that clash with just about everybody they meet."

Urahara nodded sagely. "That seems to be a fair assessment."

"They're just being childish boys," Rinrin added with a sniff.

Urahara hid a grin behind his fan. "Also a fair assessment," he admitted.

"You're such a weakling, my grandma could kick your butt!"

"You don't even_have_ a grandma, you idiot!"

"But if I did, she'd beat you into the ground!"

"That doesn't even make sense!"

"I don't even care!"

"Aaaugh!"

(Divider)

Rukia really should have been paying attention to the teacher, who was giving a very important lecture. She really should have been taking notes on the subject. Instead, she was totally ignoring these mundane human things, since that definitely wasn't what she was coming to school for. Her attention was on Ichigo. 

The other students probably didn't realize this. Rukia was looking down at her paper, doodling aimlessly on one corner of it. But in reality, all her senses were trained on the orange-haired teen three rows ahead of her. 

She really wished that the new transfer student hadn't unintentionally 'stolen' the seat next to Ichigo where she had been sitting before the fiasco with Soul Society had occurred, but that really couldn't be helped. It would be very rude to demand the seat back at this point, and it would just draw Ichigo's attention and let him know she was watching him.

His actions the past week or so had completely confused her. First, he disappears for a whole day and scares them all half to death with his 'reiatsu training', then he spends the next three days doing nothing but sitting under that same tree, apparently sleeping. She was somewhat relieved when he started training every day with Renji and Chado. That at least was something normal.

But then, a few days ago, he suddenly decided to start coming back to school, only training with Renji and Chado after he was done. So, of course, Rukia had to do the same, just to keep an eye on him.

Throwing her off even further was something he did the first day back to class. They'd all been sitting listening to the teacher as usual, when he'd suddenly gathered up and suppressed his reiatsu for no particular reason. 

Several people in the class flinched at this, and Rukia had been careful to note exactly who noticed the change. Inoue, Tatsuki, Keigo, Mizuiro, and the new student, Hirako Shinji, had all glanced over at Ichigo with alarm.

Ichigo himself hadn't done anything differently outwardly, instead ignoring the looks he was receiving and continuing to take notes as though nothing had happened. When Rukia confronted him after the class was over, he just shrugged and informed her it was just more training.

Rukia scowled in remembrance. It was actually more likely that he knew she was watching him and was intentionally trying to drive her crazy. What kind of training would involve something like that? 

Since then, he had done it once per class period, every day. It was never at any particular time, sometimes near the beginning of class and sometimes in the middle or near the end, but each time, he held it in control until the end of the class period and then released it again. It was infuriating.

Of course, the incident had also made her decide to watch Ichigo's classmates a little more closely as well. She had expected Inoue to react to Ichigo's goofing off, but it hadn't occurred to her that his other friends had also been affected. She'd have to watch them and see if they would also develop strange powers like Inoue and Chado had.

The new student was someone to watch too. It almost didn't seem like it in this town because of Ichigo, but it really was quite rare for normal humans to be able to sense things like that. The others' high spiritual energies could be attributed to hanging around Ichigo for too long. Hirako, however, had just moved in, so he didn't have that excuse.

To add to his mystery, when she'd tried to sense his spiritual energy to see how powerful it was, there was nothing there; he was suppressing it well enough that there might as well not be anybody sitting in the chair next to Ichigo at all. So he'd been trained in the use of his power. It was definitely something to look into...

With a sigh, Rukia returned her attention to Ichigo. On top of his odd behavior and crazy definition of training, there was also the hollow to worry about.

During the time she had been staying in Soul Society, her brother had warned her to be careful around Ichigo, and told her about Ichigo's loss of control during their battle. Somehow, Ichigo had a hollow inside of him that was threatening to take over. It was probably Urahara's fault.

She knew that Ichigo had stopped fighting even the weakest hollows for a short while after returning from Soul Society the second time, because he'd been afraid of the hollow taking over again. She knew, and she had even gone so far as to yell at him and force him to fight, telling him that if he was afraid, he just had to get stronger so he could beat it.

She'd known that he had an inner hollow... but somehow, the possibility of losing Ichigo to the insanity of a hollow hadn't seemed real to her until she'd seen his eyes turn into those of a hollow that night in the park...

And now, while everyone in Soul Society was training to take on Aizen and his Arrancar, it seemed like Ichigo was training to keep control of his own mind. And when she thought of it that way, some of his training made sense. If he could gain complete control of his reiatsu, logically it'd be easier to suppress the hollow. It was no wonder he was trying so hard to master that particular technique.

If that was what his training was for, it did seem to be working, at least to some extent. Sometimes, right before Ichigo suddenly suppressed his spiritual energy in the middle of class, she could feel his reiatsu change subtly. It almost seemed as though the hollow was trying to take over, and Ichigo just pushed it down, along with all the rest of his spiritual energy. That would certainly explain the randomness of the times he did it...

She really wanted to help him somehow, beyond just watching him and trying to figure out exactly what it was he was doing, but she had no idea how. And she knew that if she asked him, he'd just tell her to quit following him around, and that he was fine. 

The bell signaling the end of school rang, startling her out of her thoughts. She quickly began stuffing her papers and books haphazardly into her backpack, but Ichigo was already heading out the door, chatting distractedly with Mizuiro and Keigo. 

Rukia sighed in frustration and finished packing her back more carefully so that everything would actually fit into it. She already knew where Ichigo would be heading as soon as he ditched his two friends; Urahara's shop. Hefting her bag up onto one shoulder, she exited the room and began heading in that direction.

As she left the school grounds, the sound of Ichigo's name caught her ears and she paused a moment to listen.

"...Ichigo right now, we don't want to lose him!" It was a female voice that Rukia didn't recognize.

"I know, I know, I got it. He still won't listen to me, though, it's not my fault. Trust me, he'll come!" Rukia recognized this voice; it was Hirako Shinji.

There was a sharp slap noise followed by a cry of pain. "That's what you said _last_ week, Baldy! And guess what! No Kurosaki Ichigo!"

Rukia frowned deeply and pressed herself up against the wall to listen, peering around the corner into an alley where the voices were coming from. Hirako stood a short distance away, clutching a bloody nose and cowering away from a short, blonde girl wielding a sandal.

"I don't get it either, okay?" Hirako protested, his voice now muffled by his hands. "With the rate his hollow was gaining power, he should have lost it by now, or come to us. I don't understand how he's managed to keep this up so long. But there's no way he could suppress it on his own, and it's obvious it keeps trying to take over during class. He'll come!"

The girl rolled her eyes and raised the sandal threateningly. "Quit babbling already! Obviously just talking to him isn't going to convince him. We've given him plenty of time to try to deal with it on his own. If we wait too long, the hollow will take over and then we'll just have to kill him."

Hirako frowned. "He'll be much less likely to want to join us if we force him to, you know."

The girl hit him again, hard. "I really don't care! If you don't bring Ichigo in, then I will! You got it!"

Rukia decided she wasn't going to get any answers she needed by simply listening any longer. She rounded the corner and faced them. "Excuse me, I couldn't help but overhear... But what exactly are you trying to get Ichigo to do?"

Both of them looked up at her, surprised. Then the girl rounded on Hirako and beat him with the sandal again. "You idiot, you were followed _again_!"

"Not my fault..." Hirako groaned, his nose bleeding heavily now.

Rukia frowned. "Answer my question. Who are you and what do you want with Ichigo?"

The girl turned back to Rukia and, scowling, gestured at herself. "I'm Sarugaki Hiyori. As for Ichigo, why do you care, Shinigami?"

Rukia was mildly surprised that the girl had recognized her as a shinigami, but she shrugged it off. "He's my friend. Why wouldn't I care?" she shot back. 

"Shinigami/Hollow hybrids are illegal in Soul Society, right?" Hiyori said smugly. "So, again I ask, why would you care about some outlaw?"

Rukia's fists clenched. "Shinigami/Hollow hybrids? Is that it, then? You're Shinigami who gained access to hollow powers and were exiled from Soul Society, and now you're trying to take Ichigo away from us?"

Hiyori laughed bitterly. "Ichigo is already a hybrid. No matter what _we_ do, once what he is comes out into the open, there's no way the leaders of Soul Society will support him. Take him away? No, we're trying to give him a place to belong, whether he accepts that or not. He belongs with the Vaizard."

"He _belongs_ with his friends. He _belongs_ wherever he chooses to be," Rukia argued.

"Not if the place he chooses rejects him," Hiyori folded her arms in irritation. "I just told you, Soul Society will never accept him. He insists on calling himself a Shinigami, but that's never been what he really was, and it never will be."

Rukia mouth opened, then closed. She was unable to refute that. Ichigo had never been a normal Shinigami, having become one when she gave him her powers. And then Urahara's training creating a hollow within him... Hiyori was right; no matter how much good Ichigo had done for Soul Society, Soul Society would be unable to simply ignore this. The fusing of Shinigami with Hollow was one of the most forbidden acts possible, and exile would be the _least_ of the punishments they could give him.

Hiyori looked smug. "I see you understand. Friend or not, if Soul Society orders you to kill him, you'd have to do it. Here's my advice: Stay away from him and don't interfere with us. Come on, Shinji." 

With that, she turned and strode out of the alley, Hirako following quickly behind her, still holding his nose.

Rukia stared after them for a long time. Finally, her face set into a determined expression. If Soul Society would have Ichigo exiled for being a hybrid, then she would just have to make sure that Soul Society never found out about it. Ichigo _would_ have a place in Soul Society. He wouldn't have to join these Vaizards if he didn't want to.

Even if she couldn't help him in any other way, she could at least do that much.

(Divider)

(Several days later)

"So, according to Yamamoto, Aizen is actually planning on sacrificing Karakura town in order to make some 'King's Key' thing?" Ichigo shook his head. "How ironic, first we manage to accidentally help him get the Hougyoku, now he wants to destroy _our_ hometown, of all places... We keep getting mixed up in this thing..."

Urahara, Renji and Chado all looked grim. They were all standing in Urahara's training grounds, the match between Renji, Chado, and Ichigo having been interrupted by Inoue's announcement from the Sou-taicho. 

Inoue nodded. "Yeah. Yamamoto says that he'll probably be ready to do that by the end of the winter, so Soul Society is planning their attack for mid-winter. About a month or so from now."

Ichigo sighed. "_So I guess our training has to get finished before that,_" he commented.

There was a short pause, then Hichigo smirked at him. '_You almost sound disappointed by that._'

Ichigo was about to reply, but his attention was forced back to the outside world as Urahara began to speak, his eyes shaded over by his hat. "It's an unexpected development. We're going to have to train harder than ever to become strong enough for the winter battle..." He looked up, his expression set in firm lines. "This battle is going to be an all out war..."

Inoue nodded. "I want to become stronger too."

Urahara sighed. "I thought you might. However, I must tell you, Inoue... I really don't want you fighting on the front lines."

Inoue's eyes opened wide. Renji, Chado and Ichigo also looked up at him in surprise. "What? Why?"

"Tsubaki." Urahara stated simply. "You haven't been able to heal him since the last battle with the Arrancar, right?"

Ichigo glanced at her. "Really?"

She looked down at her shoes. "Yeah... he was shattered into so many pieces, healing is impossible... I don't even know where to begin..."

Urahara nodded. "Tsubaki is your only means of attacking. Without him, obviously you shouldn't be on the battle field."

Chado suddenly looked angry. "Hang on just a second, Urahara-san! You heard her: she wants to get stronger. You can't just tell her 'no'!"

Ichigo nodded fiercely. "Even without Tsubaki, she can help. Her healing power is unmatched, and she can defend herself and others with Santen Kesshun."

"I am fully aware of the powers of her Santen Kesshun shield," Urahara interrupted. "However, I don't think it will be of much use in the battle. As for healing, we'll have fourth Division for that. Captain Unohana's team will be on the front line with us."

"But..." Chado tried to protest.

Urahara shook his head firmly. "A soldier who's lost their powers will only get in the way in a fight." 

"Urahara-san!" Chado's fists clenched. "She can-"

"It's okay."

Ichigo and Chado turned to look at Inoue, frowning. She looked up at them and smiled, her eyes beginning to brim with tears. "It's okay," she repeated. "I understand. I don't want to get in the way..."

"Inoue," Ichigo started.

"Thank you, Kurosaki-kun. Thank you, Sado-kun." She paused, and then turned to Urahara. "Thank you, Urahara-san, for telling me. Please, excuse me." Inoue turned and ran for the entrance.

"Inoue, wait!" Chado started to run after her, but Renji stopped him. "Arbarai-san?"

Renji frowned. "Urahara's right, you know. Fourth Division has been specially trained for combat situations while they heal. Inoue has not. And besides that, it's really not in her nature to fight anyway..."

Ichigo scowled. "You didn't have to put it to her so bluntly, you know. Don't you have any regard for her feelings at all, Sandal-hat?"

Urahara kept his expression hidden in the shadows of his hat. "If it will keep her off the front lines, then it had to be done."

"What are you talking about?"

With a sigh, Urahara looked up. "Don't let this interfere with your training, any of you, but I feel I must tell you this. Inoue's powers are possibly far greater than we realize, and I don't want Aizen thinking he can use her. I want to prevent kidnappings as much as possible, so I want to keep her out of Aizen's sight."

Understanding dawned on Ichigo's face. "But why not just tell her that? Why tell her she's useless?"

"Because of the way Inoue reacts to things. If I told her I wanted her out of the way for her own sake, she would want to fight anyway. However, if she thinks she'll be in your way, then no matter what her feelings, she'll stay back." Urahara frowned. "I just hope that she'll forgive me afterward."

Ichigo sighed, knowing that Urahara was probably right. Regretfully, he turned his attention back to the deadline of the battle. "_We should step up the training somehow. I know I'm still not strong enough to beat those Arrancar yet..._"

Hichigo frowned. '_Continue going to school and training with Renji and Chado,_' he said finally. '_Being able to suppress your spiritual energy at a moment's notice even when your mind is on something totally different, plus controlling it while in battle; those two things are still important. However, when you're done training with them for the day, go back to that park and I'll start teaching you how to use the black Getsuga._'

"_Right._" Ichigo nodded to himself, then turned to Renji and Chado. "I guess we should get back to training, then. Inoue will be all right. Rukia's up there for her to talk to; she'll cheer her up."

Renji seemed surprised that he knew Rukia was following him around, but he nodded. "Right. Let's go, then."

The training continued.

(Divider)

(Several days later)

Rukia was staring at Ichigo with slight dismay. It was lunch time, and everyone had gathered in their normal spots on the roof and pulled out their lunches. But Ichigo appeared to be having trouble. 

First, he had taken a whole five minutes to get his straw into his juice box, fumbling with it and constantly missing the hole that the straw was supposed to go into. Once he finally completed that, he tried to take a drink and almost dropped the juice box entirely.

Sighing, he set the juice box down and reached for a rice ball instead. His hand missed by a good couple of inches. Frowning, he tried again and missed. He tried again more slowly and managed to grab hold of it. He slowly began to unwrap it, fumbling with the packaging.

Rukia frowned. Whatever 'training' Ichigo was doing when he went to the park, he was obviously exhausting himself.

Keigo and Mizuiro seemed to be oblivious of Ichigo's odd behavior, chatting and arguing as if nothing was wrong. 

Ichigo was still having troubles with the rice ball. Now that it was free of its packaging, he lifted it up to his mouth and managed to miss with that, too. Looking immensely frustrated, he slowly positioned it correctly and took a large bite.

Rukia sighed. "Ichigo, can I talk to you?"

He looked up at her, seeming surprised and somewhat dazed. "What?" he asked with his mouth full.

She stood up. "Let me rephrase that. Can I talk to you alone?"

Ichigo shrugged and put down the remainder of his rice ball, slowly getting to his feet and walking past her. Rukia followed, noting grimly that he wasn't walking in a straight line.

He started heading down the stairs, one hand firmly grasping the hand rail to keep him steady. It didn't work; halfway down, he tripped and Rukia winced as he tumbled down the remaining stairs.

She hurried down and helped him to his feet. "Are you all right, Ichigo?"

Ichigo blinked at her. "I'm okay."

"You seem really out of it today. You're having trouble eating, you walk like you're drunk or something, and now you're falling down stairs." Rukia frowned at him.

Ichigo shook his head. "All right, fine, I'm not okay. But I'll _be_ okay. Don't worry about it, I can handle this."

Rukia scowled at him. "Count to ten for me."

"What?" Ichigo stared. "Why?"

"I want to make sure you didn't get a concussion or anything from your fall. Count to ten."

Ichigo frowned, closing his eyes tightly. "One..." he hesitated for a long moment. "Five? No, two. No, wait... eight?"

"You're going home." Rukia stated, totally shocked. "You're going home, and you're going to completely stop training for at least a few days until you're feeling better."

"I'll be fine," Ichigo insisted. "I can't stop training now."

Rukia's expression softened slightly. "Is it the hollow?" she asked hesitantly.

Startled, Ichigo glanced at her. "What?"

"It's not just the heavy training you're putting yourself through that's making you so tired, is it? You haven't fully suppressed your hollow yet, so you're having to fight it too... So you say you can't stop training, because if you do, it'll get stronger than you. Is that it?" 

A strange mix of emotions flashed across Ichigo's face, but his usual scowl was back in place before she could identify any of them. "Kind of," he said simply. Then he sighed, rubbing his head with one hand. "I'll be okay, don't worry about me."

He pushed away from her and went back up the stairs to finish eating his lunch. She watched him go, her worry evident on her face.

(Divider) 

(Later that day)

"Something on your mind, Rukia-chan?"

Startled, Rukia jumped, turning her head in surprise. "Urahara? What are you doing here?" It was a valid question; it wasn't every day the sweet shop manager came to Ichigo's house and sat on his bedroom windowsill.

Urahara smiled. "I was looking for you, actually. You seem down, though. What's on your mind?"

Rukia watched him for a moment, then shrugged. She had lots of things on her mind, what with Ichigo, his friends, the Vaizard, and now Inoue to deal with, but she wasn't about to tell Urahara that. 

At least the problem with Inoue seemed to be mostly solved. There didn't seem to be a way to revive Tsubaki, but Rukia had taken her to Soul Society several days ago to receive training from Captain Unohana, so that she could at least use her healing and shielding abilities more effectively in battle situations. 

"Not much," she told Urahara defiantly. "I'm fine."

Urahara shook a finger at her. "That's not true. Otherwise, you wouldn't be here in Ichigo's room watching him sleep."

Rukia sighed, sitting at Ichigo's desk. "Except that I'm not watching him 'sleep', since that's obviously not all he's doing right now."

"Ah, so you_ are_ worried about him," Urahara stated.

Rukia scoffed. "Worried? No, I'm sure he can take care of himself. I wish I knew what in the world he's doing to himself, though."

"Good. This is why I wanted to find you." Urahara looked pleased. "You see, I, too, am curious as to what he's up to."

Rukia raised an eyebrow at him. "What are you planning?"

"Take a look at this." Urahara lightly tossed something to her. Catching it reflexively, she looked down. It appeared to be a black, heart-shaped locket on a silver chain.

"What is it?" she asked, turning it over in her hands and examining it. "I mean, it's pretty, but..."

Urahara grinned. "It's a little thing I've been working on recently. It works rather like my Bankai Doll, only in reverse. In other words, it forces a person into their own inner world so that they can communicate with their sword and achieve Shikai."

"And that helps us, how?" Rukia asked, looking back at the necklace and frowning. "I've already gotten Shikai, if you hadn't noticed."

Urahara waved her off with his fan, which had mysteriously reappeared in his hand. "I discovered recently that it can be used another way. That is, it can also take someone into _someone else's_ inner world."

Rukia turned a little pale. "You want me to go inside Ichigo's _mind_? Without his permission? That'd be such a huge invasion of privacy!"

"But it would force him to answer your questions," Urahara pointed out. "You could check on his mental state just by seeing what the landscape looks like, you might even be able to help him fight off his inner hollow."

Rukia shook her head. "He'd never forgive me," she said softly. "The inside of your mind is a personal place. I know how I'd feel if somebody else forced their way into _my_ mind..."

Urahara shrugged. "Well, he'd definitely prefer to have _you_ come into his mind than, say, me."

"He'd probably prefer not to have _anybody_ in his mind!" Rukia shot back.

"Perhaps so," Urahara returned gently. "However, he already does have someone in his mind; a hollow. And you can help him with that."

Rukia hesitated. Hadn't she just been wishing there was something more that she could do for Ichigo?

"A fight for your own mind can definitely be called a fight for pride," she said slowly. "I shouldn't interfere..."

Urahara shook his head. "All fights are in some way a fight for pride," he reasoned. "And any time you receive help, your pride gets injured. Sometimes, you just have to accept that help is required, and take the hit to your pride. We can't help him unless we know what's wrong. This is the best way to find that out."

Rukia shook her head firmly. "No. I refuse to do this without Ichigo's permission. Sorry." She held out the necklace for him to take back.

Urahara looked at her hand and the necklace in it for a long moment, and then looked up at her face with a smile. "All right, then, that settles it."

Confusion spread over Rukia's face. "What settles what? Take it back already!"

Nodding, he reached to take it. "I'd rather hoped you would disagree, actually. Because, since you don't want to do this, my forcing you to means it's not your fault. So Ichigo won't be mad at you." At the last moment, instead of taking the necklace, he tapped it sharply.

Immediately, it began to glow a deep black and Rukia felt herself freeze involuntarily. She watched, wide-eyed, as Urahara made a few complicated gestures first towards her, then towards Ichigo lying on his bed. Then, everything went black, and she was falling.

"Come see me when you get back!" she heard his cheerful sounding voice as if from a long ways off.

"Urahara, you _jerk!_" she screamed into the blackness as she fell.

With a bump, she suddenly realized she had stopped moving. Color flooded back into her vision and she looked around, curious despite herself as to what she would find.

She appeared to be standing on a large, blue surface that was full of rectangular, glass-covered holes. Above her was blue sky. The clouds seemed a little off-looking, for some reason she couldn't quite pin down, but otherwise it all looked fairly normal.

Okay, so the first step here would be trying to find Ichigo himself. Having not spotted anything that looked like people in the view in front of her, she turned around, scanning the area.

Then she blinked. In all other directions, the surface she was standing on eventually ended in a cliff of some sort, leaving nothing but the expanse of sky. Back behind her, though, the surface ended in some sort of a wall. It was white in some areas, and black and yellow in others, but what struck her as odd were the plants growing sideways out of it...

It suddenly hit her what she was looking at; a sidewalk, a street, planted trees. It was the ground, as seen from above. In that case, then, the surface she was standing on was...

Rukia took a step backwards in shock and let out an involuntary squeak. Feeling immensely disconcerted, she came very close to toppling over. "Sideways! Why in the world is everything sideways!"

Now the scenery around her made sense, or at least as much sense as sideways could. She was standing on the side of an office building, which was covered in windows. The clouds had looked off to her because they were actually faced the wrong direction, and the wind was blowing them down rather than across the sky.

Wide-eyed, she stared around. "What did Ichigo do to himself to turn his whole world sideways? It's no wonder he couldn't walk straight! I've got to-"

"What are you doing here?" an unfamiliar voice asked from behind her.

With a startled squeak, she whirled around. There before her stood a dark haired man probably in his mid-thirties, dressed in a black, ragged cape. "Who are you?" she blurted out without thinking.

The man raised an eyebrow at her. "This is Ichigo's mind," he said simply. "The one who doesn't belong here is you, not me."

Rukia understood suddenly. "You're Ichigo's zanpakutou, Zangetsu."

Zangetsu nodded. "What are you doing here?" he asked again.

"I-it's not my fault, Urahara did it!" she explained hastily. "I didn't want to, but-"

Zangetsu held up a hand to stop her, sighing. "Perhaps you'd better explain yourself to Ichigo. Follow me."

Silently, Rukia did as she was told, following the man as he jumped from one building to the next. They traveled a fair distance in silence, and Rukia slowly realized that they were heading towards a building in the distance that was occasionally emitting a black flash of some sort.

As they got closer, she made out two people on the side of the building, one dressed in black, the other in white. They were fighting with each other, exchanging quick sword blows that Rukia could hardly follow, and the flashes were coming from them every time they clashed. The black-clad figure was obviously Ichigo. The other, she couldn't tell.

"Ichigo!" Zangetsu called out when they were still a fairly large distance away. "You have a visitor!"

"A what!" came the shocked reply as Ichigo spun to face them. The white-clad figure leapt at him while he was distracted and Ichigo only barely noticed in time to move out of the way. "Gah! Hold on a sec, let me take care of this!" The white one laughed, but backed off. 

Ichigo flash-stepped over to where they were. A look of pure shock was plastered on his face and he pointed a finger wildly at Rukia. "What are you doing here! _How_ are you here!"

Rukia shifted uncomfortably. "It's really not my fault," she tried to explain. "Urahara gave me this necklace and explained to me that it would let me go inside your mind to check up on you."

Ichigo frowned. "Check up on me?" he asked, anger filling his voice.

"I didn't want to!" Rukia defended herself. "I tried to give it back to him, but he activated it instead! Since I am here, though, maybe you can tell me something."

"What?" Ichigo's frown was still in place. He obviously wasn't going to let her off that easily.

"What in the world did you do to yourself to turn your entire world _sideways_?"

Ichigo's expression went blank. "Wait, what?"

Rukia stared for a moment, then gestured wildly around at their surroundings. "You can't tell me you didn't _notice_!"

Ichigo shook his head with a slight smile. "No, no, that's not it. It's just... You mean that _your_ inner world _isn't_ sideways?"

Rukia looked around, wide-eyed. "No, mine is a snow covered field, with flowers. This is just..." she trailed off, turning back to face him. "Wait, you mean this is normal for you?"

Ichigo shrugged. "I didn't believe it either, but yeah, apparently. Zangetsu won't explain why, either. He just ignores me." Ichigo glared at his sword, who remained silent, his face expressionless.

Rukia frowned. "If this is normal, then how come you couldn't even walk straight, or even _count_ earlier today?"

"Um..." Ichigo looked slightly embarrassed. "See, trying to practice with Getsuga Tenshou in the real world would quickly turn Urahara's basement into a pile of rubble... So I figured I'd practice in here, where the only thing that gets destroyed is buildings..."

Rukia stared at him. "And you didn't think that maybe destroying your own mind would be a _bad_ thing?"

"It's not permanent," Ichigo protested. "The buildings themselves just represent my ability to access information, not the information itself. And they rebuild quickly. See, I can already count again: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10!"

Rukia frowned. "And the number after that?" she asked suspiciously.

Ichigo scowled at her. "... Shut up. The point is that it comes back. Besides, once we figured out that stuff like my coordination was being messed up, we put up barriers around the important buildings, like motor skills and fighting and stuff..."

"Important buildings? And things like basic _math_ aren't important?"

"Not really. I can fight without using math," Ichigo argued.

Rukia was exasperated. "Fighting's not the only important thing here! What about your memories, for example? Quiz time, how many sisters do you have?"

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "More random questions. These I can answer, though. Two."

"And their names are?"

"Karin and Yuzu."

"And how old are they?"

Ichigo frowned, figuring this one out slowly. He glared at her. "Not fair, you know I can't count that high yet..."

Rukia shook her head. "Ichigo, they're nine."

There was a long pause as this sunk in. Ichigo scowled again. "Shut up. I could have sworn we put up barriers around my long term memories too..."

"Why don't you just put up barriers around _all_ of the buildings in your mind?" Rukia asked, exasperated.

There was another long pause as Ichigo thought about this. "I... I don't know, I never thought of that."

Rukia sighed. "You're hopeless." Something occurred to her suddenly and she glanced behind Ichigo to where the other, white-clad person had been standing. He was still there, only now he seemed to be wearing a pair of dark sunglasses. "Ichigo... Who is that you were training with when I got here?"

An expression that Rukia couldn't interpret flashed across Ichigo's face for an instant and he glanced back at him. "Ano... He..."

"Is he, like, an illusion created by Zangetsu so that you'd have somebody to fight against, or what?" Rukia theorized.

Ichigo's eyes lit up inexplicably. "Yes, exactly!"

The other person laughed at this and flash stepped to stand beside Zangetsu. Rukia was startled to realize that his features were exactly those of Ichigo's, except that he looked like he'd been bleached white. The sunglasses he wore were the same as Zangetsu's, only about three shades darker, so she couldn't see his eyes. 

"Yup, Zangetsu-san has to hold the barriers, so I'm here to train with Ichigo!" he said cheerfully. His voice was decidedly different than Ichigo's; slightly higher pitched.

Hurriedly, Ichigo continued, glancing warily at his white clone. "Anyway, did Urahara tell you how you were supposed to get _out_ of my mind?"

Rukia sensed that Ichigo was trying to change the subject. However he brought up an important point, and she felt her heart sink as she realized that she didn't have any clue how the necklace actually worked. "Um..."

Ichigo sighed, frowning. "So you're stuck here until we figure this out," he concluded dryly. "Great. Sandal-hat always did come up with the most _wonderful_ plans..." The white Ichigo snorted with amusement.

"Maybe the necklace has some way of getting me back?" Rukia wondered.

Ichigo glanced at her. "Is that it?" he asked, pointing to her neck. Startled, Rukia looked down and realized that it was, indeed, around her neck rather than in her hand. There were so many strange things in here that she hadn't even noticed that she wasn't holding it anymore.

"Yeah, that's it." She unhooked the clasp on the chain and held the pendant in her hand, looking it over. "I don't know... It just looks like a normal necklace to me." She paused. "Except that it used to be pure black, now it's grey."

"Maybe the color is a time limit of some sort? Like, when it turns white it takes you back?" Ichigo frowned at it. "It looks like a locket. What's inside of it?"

"I dunno. Hopefully, instructions of some sort." She pried it open, with some difficulty.

Inside, there were simply two pictures, one on each side of the heart-shaped locket. One was of Rukia, the other was Ichigo.

Rukia turned red, snapping the locket shut. Ichigo scowled. "Okay, as if I didn't have _enough_ reason to want to kill Sandal-hat for this..."

"I'll help," Rukia promised, glaring at the locket, which was now a slightly lighter shade of grey.

The white Ichigo seemed to think this was absolutely hilarious. Ichigo hit him. It didn't help; he just laughed harder. "Knock it off, it's not funny!" Ichigo growled. Zangetsu smirked. Ichigo noticed and whirled on him. "Not you, too!" 

Rukia couldn't help but giggle. Ichigo stared at her. "And what are _you_ laughing at?"

"You!" she laughed. "You realize that you're fighting with an illusion, right?"

Ichigo scowled. "Well, he's an _annoying_ illusion."

For some reason, this made the white Ichigo laugh even more. Ichigo glared at him. The white Ichigo seemed to get the point, whatever it was, and his laughs subsided into snickers.

Something dawned on Rukia suddenly. "Oh, hey, Ichigo?"

"What?"

"One reason Urahara wanted me to come in here in the first place was so that I could maybe help you fight off your inner hollow..."

Ichigo frowned, clenching his teeth with annoyance. "Is that so?"

"Yeah, but you know... I haven't seen anything that even remotely looks like a hollow in here. Where is it?" Rukia looked around warily, as if expecting the hollow to suddenly jump out of nowhere and attack them.

The white Ichigo burst into another fit of laughter. Glaring, Ichigo kicked him. Again, it didn't help, so Ichigo simply returned his attention to Rukia.

"I don't need any help with my inner hollow," Ichigo told her matter-of-factly. "Trust me; I've got it under control."

Rukia looked concerned. "Are you sure? Ichigo, I can sense it trying to take over during class sometimes, and I overheard the Vaizards saying that they expected you to lose control a long time ago. I half expected to find you actually fighting the hollow when I came in here..."

The white Ichigo snickered again, and Ichigo twitched, losing his patience. "Okay, that's it. Get lost." He pushed him off the edge of the building they were standing on, causing his laughter to turn into a shout of surprise.

Rukia raised an eyebrow as his yells faded into the distance. "Um, will he be okay?" she asked.

Ichigo shrugged. "For one thing, he's just an illusion. For another, shinigami can walk on air. And besides, the place loops vertically. Even if he couldn't walk on the air, he'd be back."

"Really?" Rukia looked up, noting that there were actually more buildings up there.

"Yeah. Otherwise, if I ever fell off, I'd kind of be in trouble." Ichigo reasoned. 

Rukia smirked at this. "The inside of your mind is crazy," she informed him. 

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Anyway, you said you ran into the Vaizards?"

Now Rukia frowned. "Yeah, actually. At first, I just happened to have stumbled on them and so I listened in to their conversation. They say they're planning to force you to join them, whether you want to or not. When I let them know I was there, they told me I should leave you alone and not interfere..."

Ichigo smirked humorlessly. "Yeah, you did a really good job of leaving me alone," he said sarcastically.

"Like I'm going to listen to a couple of shinigami/hollow hybrids!" Rukia shot at him. "Or to you, for that matter. I don't care if you don't want me to worry about you. You're my friend, and I want to help!"

Ichigo hesitated, and then sighed. "You _have_ helped, Rukia. But you have to understand, this is something I have to do myself."

"Why?"

"It's hard to explain." Ichigo said simply. He glanced down at the necklace in Rukia's hands. "If we're right about the color thing, you're almost out of time."

Rukia looked at it and saw that he was right. The locket was now a very pale grey.

"And when you get back, this never happened. As far as you're telling Sandal-hat, you saw nothing in here. Right?" Ichigo threatened.

Rukia frowned, but nodded. "All right," she promised, feeling slightly guilty, knowing that it was a lie. Urahara would be able to tell better than she could whether or not Ichigo really needed help...

The necklace finished turning a pure white, and it began to glow brighter and brighter until whiteness filled her vision.

Then, she was standing back in Ichigo's room, looking down at him in his bed and holding the necklace, which had once again turned black.

A moment later, Ichigo opened his eyes, looking up at her. "Good, looks like it worked," he noted. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go find Sandal-hat and kill him."

He got up and left the room, leaving Rukia unsure as to what to do. 

(Divider)

Urahara listened intently as Rukia recounted what had happened when she went into Kurosaki's mind. 

He had already received an earful of yelling and complaints from Kurosaki himself, and the way he told it, Urahara was almost afraid Rukia wouldn't tell him what she saw. He was greatly relieved when she came by later, after Kurosaki left, to give him her own earful, plus the information he wanted.

"So, you _did_ see Kurosaki-san's sword, Zangetsu, right?" he asked her curiously, when she was done.

Rukia raised an eyebrow at him. "Yeah, I told you already, Zangetsu was there. Why wouldn't he be?"

Urahara pondered this. "Listen to this; both Kurosaki-san's sword and Kurosaki-san's hollow are his power. The stronger of the two is the one that manifests in Kurosaki-san's mind, unless the stronger one allows the other to have a physical form also. So the fact that you saw Zangetsu tells me that either his inner hollow is so weak that even his sword can suppress it, or that his hollow is letting Zangetsu also be in his mind."

Rukia's eyes lit up. "There'd be no reason for the hollow to let Ichigo train with his own sword, so it's got to be the first one! That's why Ichigo said he doesn't need help!"

Urahara shook his head gravely. "If the hollow was weak enough for Zangetsu to suppress, it would be completely unable to even try and take over Kurosaki-san. Since we know that it _did_ take him over while he was fighting Byakuya, it has to be stronger than that."

"Oh." Rukia's heart sank. "But then why would it let Zangetsu be free?"

"I have no idea. That's the problem," Urahara sighed. "And there's more of a mystery here as well. Why wasn't Kurosaki-san training with his sword itself if he was there?"

Rukia thought about this. "The white Ichigo said something about Zangetsu holding the barriers that were protecting some of the buildings."

"And that's another thing," Urahara mentioned solemnly. "Most illusions don't talk, especially if the person who's making it is right there. That implies that either this clone you mentioned was more than just an illusion, or that Zangetsu is powerful enough to create autonomous illusions. That's an incredibly difficult thing to do, especially for a sword whose powers have nothing at all to do with illusion."

"So you think that Ichigo's sword itself has gotten stronger?" Rukia asked, confused. "Strong enough to keep the hollow down, maybe?"

Urahara sighed. "I don't know," he admitted. "It doesn't seem likely. The zanpakutous themselves usually stay at the same general power level. Besides that, didn't you say before that the hollow keeps trying to take over at school?"

Rukia nodded with a frown. "True, and like you said, if the hollow was weak enough for Zangetsu to suppress, it couldn't even try to take over. So what _is_ going on, then? What have we gotten from this besides more questions?"

"We've gotten the knowledge that Kurosaki-san's mind isn't falling apart. We've gotten the knowledge that, for now at least, he has things under control. All we can do, I suppose, is hope they stay that way, and hope that he decides to tell us what's happening." Urahara frowned, his hat shading his eyes.

Rukia sighed. "I hate feeling like I can't help him, though."

Urahara nodded. "I feel the same. Still, we can help in some ways. Trying to keep him off Soul Society's radar, for example, or helping him fight off the Vaizard if they resort to using force to bring him in against his will."

Rukia's expression hardened with resolve. "True." She stood with a sigh. "Thank you, Urahara."

"No, thank you," Urahara returned. As he watched Rukia leave, Urahara thought hard. "Kurosaki-san, you are one very interesting individual..."

(Divider)

(One week later)

Ichigo sensed the portal from Hueco Mundo opening up at the same time Rukia did and he immediately shot up out of his seat. Calling out some lame excuse to the teacher, he raced out the door, Rukia following close behind him.

'_Make sure you don't leave your body somewhere that a stray attack would destroy it,_' Hichigo reminded him with a smirk. '_We wouldn't want you to accidentally kill yourself._'

"_Yeah, yeah._" Ichigo returned. He turned his attention to Rukia. "Where should I ditch my body?"

"I'm assuming you don't have Kon with you," Rukia stated with some annoyance. She pulled out her soul candy dispenser. "I'll have Chappy take you back to your house."

She popped the pill into her mouth and Ichigo used his badge to change to his shinigami form. Chappy stayed behind to take care of Ichigo's body and the two shinigami continued running out the school's main doors.

"I don't get it, it's too early for the Winter War to have started already," Rukia complained as they ran.

Ichigo shook his head. "This isn't the main battle. There's only four of them."

"Three of those are Espada level, though," Rukia warned.

"One of them is Grimmjaw," Ichigo noted. "He separated from the other three. He's coming towards us."

Rukia frowned. "He's definitely targeting you. Be careful."

Ichigo simply smirked. "Him I can take," he said confidently.

'_Don't get too full of yourself,_' Hichigo warned, but he was also smirking as he watched the proceedings. Ichigo had been getting stronger through his training, and he was confident that Ichigo could defeat the 6th Espada with little problem.

To Hichigo, this battle wouldn't be a test of the effectiveness of his training, because he already knew that Ichigo was learning. Rather, this battle would be a test of whether or not the training was worth it in the first place...

Ichigo spotted Grimmjaw up ahead, standing at a level just above the roof tops, watching him. Ichigo jumped up to the same level so that the Arrancar wouldn't be above him.

Grimmjaw grinned at him. "I've been looking for you, Shinigami."

Ichigo laughed, unsheathing Zangetsu. "That's my line, Grimmjaw."

"Although I must say, your choice in company is lacking. Do you expect her to do any better than she did last time?" Grimmjaw taunted.

Behind him, Rukia tightened her grip on her sword, but Ichigo ignored it. "And I must say, your choice of appearance is lacking. Seen your other arm lately?"

Grimmjaw smirked at this. "I decided I didn't need both arms to kill you."

Hichigo laughed. '_More likely Aizen got mad at him for disobeying orders last time._'

"_Probably,_" Ichigo agreed. "Fine. I guess I don't have to go easy on you, then." He brought Zangetsu forward and pointed it towards Grimmjaw. The hilt wrap snaked itself around his arm. "Ban Kai!"

Grimmjaw laughed, unsheathing his sword. "Just going to use Ban Kai? Don't worry; I'm ready for you this time. No surprises. Bring it on, Shinigami!"

Ichigo ignored this, gazing calmly at the Espada. For a long moment, they both stood there, tensed for action, waiting for the other to make the first move.

A slight widening of the Arrancar's smirk was the only warning Ichigo got before Grimmjaw suddenly disappeared from his vision, but it was enough. Ichigo turned, following Grimmjaw's sonido, and met his blade head on with Zangetsu. The two exchanged several quick sword blows before jumping away.

Ichigo smirked. Hichigo had been right about being able to move faster; unlike last time, he found himself actually able to keep up with the Espada's movements.

Grimmjaw just laughed. "You're boring me, Shinigami! Where's that other power of yours? Give me a real challenge!" Ichigo glanced briefly down at Rukia, but otherwise ignored the comment. The Arrancar grinned, having noticed the look. "Oh, a secret technique, then?"

Ichigo didn't reply; instead he leapt suddenly towards Grimmjaw. He held eye contact for a half a moment, and then shouted, "Getsuga Tenshou!" Immediately after the words left his mouth, he flash-stepped to Grimmjaw's other side, moving faster than his own attack to release another one from the other direction. "Getsuga Tenshou!"

The two medium-strength attacks collided, trapping Grimmjaw in between them. The Arrancar was only lightly damaged, however, having been prepared for the random assaults that Hichigo had used during their last battle. He countered, forcing Ichigo to jump back to avoid him. Grimmjaw began charging up a cero blast and Ichigo prepared to counter with a more powerful Getsuga.

Below them, Rukia suddenly activated her first dance. "Some no Mai, Tsukishiro!" A circle of ice appeared on the ground, then shot up into an ice column that headed straight towards Grimmjaw.

Caught off guard by the outside attack, Grimmjaw very suddenly found himself completely frozen in place. Mentally, Hichigo grinned, seeing a perfect opportunity to attack the Arrancar while he was immobile, but Ichigo hesitated and instead lowered his sword.

'_Why didn't you attack him?_' Hichigo demanded. '_He can't move!_'

Instead of replying, Ichigo glared down at Rukia. "What was that for?" he demanded.

She stared at him for a moment before narrowing her eyes in irritation. "What do you mean, what was that for? This is the thanks I get for helping you?"

"That wasn't helping, it was interrupting!"

Hichigo laughed softly. '_I see. As usual, you're too soft to attack your enemy while he's down, and you're too proud to accept any help._'

"I could have taken him by myself. I wanted a fair fight and outside help isn't fair." Ichigo argued, talking to both Rukia and his hollow.

Rukia glared at him. "What were you expecting me to do, then? Just sit here and watch you?"

Ichigo scoffed. "Nobody said you had to stay here. There's three more Arrancar, you know. You could have gone to help the others."

"And leave you here to fight by yourself?" Rukia shot at him. "I don't think so, idiot!"

"Well, if you were going to stay, you should at least have not gotten involved!"

"Like I could ignore an opening like that! Like it or not, Ichigo, I'm going to help you when I can!"

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Funny, that sounds strangely like-"

He never got to tell her exactly what it was she sounded like because suddenly there was a deafening noise to his left, like a large pane of glass being shattered against the ground. Ichigo whirled, realizing in a moment that Grimmjaw had somehow managed to break his way out of the giant block of ice, and brought Zangetsu up to defend...

Only to realize with dread a moment later that Grimmjaw wasn't attacking him, but Rukia. Changing gears, Ichigo flash stepped, trying to get in between the two of them to block Grimmjaw's blow, but it was too late; Grimmjaw was already there. 

Rukia, startled, brought her sword up to defend herself. The Arrancar simply knocked it aside, plunging his sword deep into her stomach. "Stay out of other people's fights," he hissed menacingly at her. He kicked her off the end of his blade and, her eyes wide with shock, she dropped to the ground.

"Rukia!"

Grimmjaw turned to him with a smirk. "Shall we continue, Shinigami?"

Ichigo tightened his grip on Zangetsu, overwhelming anger filling his mind. The control he had over his spiritual energy began to slip. With an inarticulate cry, he lunged forward, half blind with rage. Grimmjaw laughed and dodged easily, twisting and smashing the back of his head with the hilt of his sword. Ichigo was sent flying hard into the street below.

'_Don't lose your focus!_' Hichigo warned as he slowly got back up. '_You're letting your emotions get the better of you! Think about your moves before you make them!_'

Ichigo's thoughts were muddled with his anger. "_He hurt Rukia _again_... my fault, I should have been paying attention!_"

'_Save the guilt trip for later, idiot!_' Hichigo snapped. '_Right now, you have to fight! Rukia will be fine!_'

Gritting his teeth, Ichigo forced himself to calm down, then jumped back up to Grimmjaw's level again, aiming a blow at his head and releasing mini Getsugas as he slashed.

At first, Grimmjaw was surprised by these smaller attacks, but all too quickly, he adjusted to them and began dodging instead of blocking in order to avoid them.

Ichigo didn't let up, continuing to block and attack, waiting for an opening to send a larger Getsuga Tenshou at him. Finally, Grimmjaw dodged sideways and was slow to turn back to face Ichigo, giving him the opening he needed. No longer attempting to conserve spiritual energy, he shoved as much as he could into his attack and let it fly at the Arrancar's head.

Ichigo caught a glimpse of surprise on his opponent's face before the red-tinged black wave completely engulfed him. 

Immediately, Ichigo turned and started towards the spot where Rukia was propped up, watching him with wide eyes. "Rukia, are you all right?"

Behind him, Grimmjaw cut through the remainder of the smoke and debris from the attack with his sword. He was heavily burned, bleeding, and short of breath. Ignoring all this, he leapt toward Ichigo again and he was forced to turn back to meet Grimmjaw's sword with his own.

"I don't get it! How did you make that attack stronger, Shinigami?" Grimmjaw demanded, grinning.

Ichigo shoved him back and released another smaller Getsuga. "What's the matter? Can't handle it? Maybe you should give up now."

Grimmjaw dodged, countering with another blow that Ichigo blocked. "No way! This is great! Now I just have to get you to use that other power of yours, and this will be a perfect battle!"

Ichigo just frowned. "Focus on what's in front of you first!" he called. "Getsuga Tenshou!" He sent another medium-sized attack at Grimmjaw's face.

The battle continued, with sword constantly clashing against sword. Ichigo clearly had the upper hand so far, although he was having to fight hard to keep that advantage. But Hichigo also knew that Grimmjaw hadn't even released his sword yet. Ichigo still had a few tricks up his sleeves, but if Grimmjaw decided to take this seriously, he would definitely be hard pressed to keep up.

At any rate, Hichigo decided that now would be as good a time as any to try his experiment...

As soon as Ichigo had pushed a good distance between himself and Grimmjaw, Hichigo called out to him. '_Ichigo, switch with me!_'

Ichigo hesitated, having just been about to lunge at his opponent again. "_Why?_" he asked suspiciously. "_I'm doing fine!_"

'_I know you are, but you're also getting tired,_' Hichigo pointed out with a smirk. '_Let me fight while you rest._'

There was a long pause as Ichigo considered this, breathing heavily. Grimmjaw, for his part, seemed perfectly content to stand back a ways and wait for Ichigo to make the next move while he himself rested.

Hichigo waited for a response, beginning to feel edgy. 

The whole reason he had agreed to give Ichigo training was so that Ichigo would actually treat him like an equal for once. From the start, Ichigo had assumed that Hichigo was simply an evil part of himself, a mindless hollow bent on destruction. While the hollow part of it was true, the evil and mindless part certainly wasn't. Hollows _were_ pure instinct, but despite what he told Ichigo, instinct didn't have to mean simply killing.

In fact, Hichigo had never tried to do anything Ichigo himself hadn't been doing already. Fighting Byakuya, fighting that Koga person, fighting those Espada—Ichigo had already been trying to defeat them, Hichigo had only wanted to do the same.

During the first battle with the Arrancar, he had even nicely asked Ichigo to switch with him. (He hoped Ichigo could see the parallels between now and then, but he seriously doubted this). But then, instead of simply saying 'no', Ichigo had completely ignored him and pushed him down. And then he wondered why Hichigo had gotten upset and frozen his movements... He hadn't needed to be so rude...

Then, during that first battle with Grimmjaw, Ichigo had lost his temper and thrown Hichigo into control. _That_ had been interesting, not to mention amusing. And Ichigo's expression after he had given him back control had been priceless...

But the best part about that whole affair wasn't the fact that he'd been allowed to fight—although that had been fun. The best part was that Ichigo was forced to realize that maybe he wasn't such a horrible person after all. Hichigo had been surprised, but pleased, when Ichigo decided to forgo his original plan of 'maybe if I ignore him he'll go away' and actually talk to him for once. 

Not that he would ever admit that to Ichigo...

However, when Ichigo had asked him why he hated him, he only gave him half the answer. While it was true that he _was_ irritated that the dumber and weaker of the two of them got to be in charge, it was also true that he really wasn't looking for complete control. What he really wanted was a cooperation between the two of them. Hadn't Ichigo noticed that when they first talked, he had called him aibou?

At any rate, Ichigo's idea of training had been perfect for getting them to work together, which was the only real reason he actually accepted it.

So now was the real test. Did Ichigo realize the potential they had if they worked as a tag team of sorts, instead of constantly fighting for control? Was the training he was giving Ichigo worth it, or would Ichigo simply push him down and ignore him again once the training was over?

Ichigo suddenly made up his mind, releasing his hold on his spiritual energy, which caused Grimmjaw to flinch and look up. "_Okay, go!_" Ichigo shouted. Mentally, he stepped back and let Hichigo past.

Hichigo grinned, seizing control and immediately lunging at Grimmjaw again. It was worth it.

Grimmjaw noted the change in reiatsu and smirked, instantly ready. "So you decided to use it after all, Shinigami!" he laughed, dodging Hichigo's sudden volley of attacks.

Hichigo simply cackled. "Don't talk about things you don't understand, Arrancar! Getsuga Tenshou!"

He sent his attacks at Grimmjaw rapid fire, using shunpo to send them at him from all directions. Dodging such an attack was impossible. Grimmjaw was sent flying into the street below.

Something occurred to Ichigo suddenly. "_Oh no, I just realized... Rukia, is she...?_"

Hichigo glanced down at her and grinned, noting with amusement the terror on her face as she looked at the steadily forming hollow mask. '_Yup. Looks like you'll have some explaining to do later._' he laughed.

Ichigo groaned. Hichigo returned his attention to Grimmjaw, who had gotten up and was lunging at him again. With matching smirks from both parties, the fight continued.

Time after time, Hichigo sent his Getsuga Tenshou attack at the Arrancar, sometimes leaving them as simple waves and at other times spiraling them to come around at him from behind. Grimmjaw blocked or avoided most of these attacks, countering with his own powerful sword blows and occasional ceros. 

For now, Hichigo appeared to have the upper hand, but both combatants were taking damage.

Grimmjaw's fighting became more and more haphazard as he began to tire from the constant attacks. Hichigo flash-stepped behind him, turned, and fired a Getsuga Tenshou wave, piling as much spirit energy into it as he could. Grimmjaw turned to face it and, unable to dodge it in time, countered with a powerful cero.

The two attacks collided in midair, exploding outwards from the force, but Hichigo's attack had been far stronger. Grimmjaw fell from the sky and landed heavily on the ground. Hichigo dropped back down to street level as well, his sword ready for Grimmjaw's next attack.

Grimmjaw was breathing heavily, covered in burns and cuts. Hichigo himself had several long cuts across his chest, but he ignored them; they weren't very deep.

Slowly, Grimmjaw looked up at Hichigo, grinning. "Very good, Shinigami. You've improved since our last battle. Now I can use my full strength against you!"

Hichigo smirked. "Bring it on, Arrancar!"

He held his sword out in front of him, beginning his release. "_Kishire_! Pan-"

But before he could finish, he was interrupted by the arrival of another familiar looking Arrancar. Turning to face him, Grimmjaw growled. "Ulquiorra..."

Ulquiorra looked impassively back at him. "The mission is complete, Grimmjaw. We're leaving."

Abruptly, the two were enclosed in the yellow light of the Negation field. Grimmjaw looked positively enraged. 

"Running away again, Grimmjaw?" Hichigo taunted. "What a pity!"

Swiftly, he angrily turned back to face the hollow. "Shut up! Just don't you dare die before we meet again!"

Hichigo smirked. "Same to you."

The Negation field swallowed both Arrancar into the portal back to Hueco Mundo.

"_What mission?_" Ichigo asked after a moment. "_Were Grimmjaw and the others just distractions?_"

Hichigo shrugged slightly. '_It's possible. There were only four Arrancar, and Ulquiorra wasn't one of them. He was probably doing something while the others kept us busy..._'

"_But doing what, though?_" Ichigo asked in frustration.

'_No idea. You should probably go meet up with the others who were fighting,_' Hichigo suggested. '_Then you can-_'

"Ichigo?" a trembling voice asked. Hichigo turned in slight surprise, having forgotten that Rukia was still there.

She took a few stumbling steps towards him, one hand clenched over the wound in her stomach, her wide eyes fixed on Hichigo's. In her other hand, she held her sword loosely.

Hichigo smirked, laying Zangetsu lightly on his shoulder, since he had no sheath while in Bankai. "Sorry, Rukia-chan! Ichigo's not here right now! Want me to take a message?" He laughed at her.

Rukia's eyes narrowed at him and her sword came up swiftly, its point resting threateningly at his throat. "Give Ichigo back, you monster," she hissed.

Hichigo simply laughed again. Inwardly, Ichigo groaned. "_You're not making this any easier._"

'_But she's so amusing!_' Hichigo responded with a grin. Reaching up, he lay one finger on the flat of her blade and pushed it away lightly. Rukia didn't have the strength to bring it back up. "So rude, Rukia-chan! You know, you're far too weak right now to be making demands like that."

Rukia grit her teeth and her hands clenched tighter on her sword. "GIVE HIM BACK!" she screamed, trying to take a swing at him. He jumped out of the way easily, laughing.

"No need to be so pushy!" he cackled.

Ichigo growled. "_Okay, enough is enough. Quit scaring her already and let me have control back. She's still wounded, that needs to be taken care of!_"

'_Sure, ruin all my fun,_' Hichigo complained.

"_Give me back control!_" Ichigo mentally shoved. 

Hichigo physically flinched. "Hey, wait a- Ichigo, stop!" 

Ichigo shoved again, this time succeeding in taking back control. The mask shattered. Hichigo, thrown back into Ichigo's mind, sulked slightly. '_Fine, be that way. I was about to give it back..._'

"_Sorry,_" Ichigo apologized tersely before turning his attention to Rukia, who had dropped her sword as his spiritual energy returned to its normal state. It clattered noisily on the ground and she stared at him for a long moment.

"Rukia..." he began.

Suddenly, she threw herself at him, breaking down and crying, clinging to him desperately. "Thank god," Ichigo was able to make out between her sobs.

Ichigo was somewhat shocked. He could count the number of times he'd seen Rukia seriously cry on one hand, and even those times she'd never done this. Awkwardly, he placed a hand on her head. "Rukia, are you all right?"

She shook her head against his chest. "Stupid idiot," she said through her tears, looking up at him. "That's my line."

Ichigo gave her what he hoped was a reassuring look. "I'm fine," he promised.

"You're not. It scares me, Ichigo. I don't want to lose you, too."

'_Aww..._'

"_Shut up,_" Ichigo shot back. "I'm fine," he repeated to Rukia. "I guess now would be a good time to explain something to you..."

"I hope this is an explanation for how you've managed to keep your hollow suppressed for so long, only to lose control so easily," a dry voice came from above. "Because we'd like to know the answer to that, too."

Ichigo flinched, looking up. Standing on the edge of the surrounding rooftops, several people had surrounded them. The one who had spoken was Hirako Shinji, which meant that these people were the Vaizards. He counted quickly; there were eight, including Hirako.

Rukia tried to pull away from Ichigo, but the sudden movement made her wince in pain, collapsing against him again. Quickly, he held onto her to keep her from falling.

"What do you want now?" he demanded of the Vaizard above him.

Hirako jumped down to the street and began walking towards them. "The same thing we've wanted every other time we've contacted you. We've given you plenty of time to think about it."

Ichigo scowled. "You're wasting your time."

"We wast_ed_ our time," Hirako corrected with annoyance. As he approached, he unsheathed his zanpakutou. "Now we're tired of waiting. You will join us. It's really not your choice."

Slowly, Ichigo lowered Rukia to the ground so that he could fight without having to worry too much about her. As he did so, he kept his eyes on the approaching Vaizard. "Don't move," he directed her, only glancing at her briefly.

She glared at him, reaching out and grasping her zanpakutou, obviously not about to do what he asked.

He decided he didn't have time to argue with her, instead stepping towards Hirako. He could still possibly win this, as long as they didn't all gang up on him. Which, he had to admit, they might. Why else would they all have come?

However, for now, he at least had some element of surprise: neither he nor Hichigo had used the true form of Getsuga Tenshou while battling Grimmjaw. They'd done this on purpose, not only for the potential surprise value, but also because it used up a huge amount of spirit energy. Ichigo still had enough to use it at this point, but probably only once or twice. Hopefully, that would be all he'd need.

Beyond that advantage, Ichigo also guessed that Hirako would assume he would be far more tired from the last battle than he really was. He still obviously thought that Ichigo was fighting against his hollow, and so would have had to use a lot of energy to get control back...

He answered the Vaizard's comment. "I'm not going to just suddenly change my mind and join you just because of a threat like that," Ichigo spat, holding Zangetsu at the ready.

Hirako sighed. "I thought as much, though I had hoped otherwise. To be honest, if it were up to me, we would go with your decision and let you do whatever you want. However, this last display of yours has even changed my mind; if your hollow can take over that easily, then obviously you need us more than we need you."

Ichigo narrowed his eyes at him. "I don't need your little group of outlaws," he insisted, gripping Zangetsu tighter. "I know what I'm doing."

"Fine. I guess we get to do this the hard way," Hirako said with a frown. He leapt at Ichigo, who barely had enough time to bring Zangetsu up to block as Hirako swung his zanpakutou not just once, but three times in succession.

"_He's fast!_" Ichigo exclaimed. Working as fast as he could, he sent off several quick Getsugas at the Vaizard, all of which were dodged easily. Hirako almost disappeared entirely from his vision as he moved, and several of his blows connected painfully.

The Vaizard jumped at him again and Ichigo whirled around to block, missing and receiving another cut on his arm instead. Ichigo caught a glimpse of his opponent and attacked, vaguely relieved to hear metal clash against metal rather than a total miss. 

'_Switch again, Ichigo!_' Hichigo called desperately. '_He's strong! I don't even know if__ I__ can take him, but I can at least use our hollow powers!_'

"_Do it, then!_" Ichigo agreed. He shoved hard against Hirako's blade, putting some distance between them, and then gave control back to his hollow.

Hichigo didn't even have the chance to move, nor did he even sense the other Vaizard coming. Suddenly, he was pinned to the ground, six different blades pressed at varying angles against his neck. Hirako stepped forward, ramming the point of his zanpakutou into the hollow mask, shattering it.

Hichigo mentally screamed, dropping control of the body, which forced Ichigo to take over again. Ichigo blinked in surprise and shock. "_Are you okay? What happened?_"

'_Some sort of kidou!_' Hichigo hissed in pain from the back of Ichigo's mind. '_I'll be fine, but it _hurts'

Ichigo stared up at Hirako. "What did you do?" he demanded.

"Hollow repellant," the Vaizard explained boredly. "Very useful with training new recruits. You know, this should be proof enough to you that you need us. You can't even _begin_ a battle without your inner hollow forcing control?"

Ichigo scowled back at him, but said nothing, seething with anger.

Hirako watched him for a second. "Let's go," he said finally. "Hachi, see to the girl."

"Hai," one of the other Vaizard responded. The weight disappeared off of Ichigo's back and he was hauled forcefully to his feet. He twisted around as much as they would let him to look at Rukia. She was watching in slight shock as a particularly large Vaizard approached her.

"Leave her alone!" Ichigo yelled, struggling against the many hands gripping his arms. Where was Zangetsu? It had been taken from him in the struggle; one of the other Vaizard obviously had it.

"Calm down," Hirako intoned. "Hachi is our healer; his abilities are much like Orihime-chan's. Despite what you may believe, we're not monsters. We're not going to just let her die..."

"Yeah, right," Ichigo bit out distractedly. He'd spotted his zanpakutou, held loosely in the hand of a green-haired Vaizard with odd goggles. If he could get it back, he could send a true-form Getsuga Tenshou at them. He was far enough away from where Rukia was lying that she wouldn't get caught up in it...

Abruptly, he made a lunge for it. He was unable to completely break away from the hands holding him, but he was able, at least, to grab hold of Zangetsu's hilt. He poured spirit energy into the blade. "Getsuga Tenshou!"

The black bubble of destruction had the desired effect; all of the Vaizard abruptly dropped him, backing away to safe distances. Even then, Ichigo was pleased to see that not all of them had been fast enough to escape the blast entirely, and several were sporting large burns.

With a smirk, Ichigo turned to face Hirako, trying to ignore the fact that he was completely exhausted. Hirako glared at him.

"_Is that kidou wearing off?_" Ichigo asked Hichigo, keeping his eyes on the Vaizard.

'_To some extent,_' Hichigo answered, wincing. '_I'm not going to be able to take over for a while, though, so you're on your own for now._'

"All right, Ichigo. We tried to be nice, but as usual, you refuse to listen to logic," Hirako yelled to him. He raised his right hand up to the left side of his face, summoning his helmet-like hollow mask. "This ends now." He flash-stepped at Ichigo again.

If Ichigo had thought the Vaizard was fast before, that was nothing compared to the breakneck speed with which he now moved.

He barely even had time to think before Hirako was on him. He blocked as many attacks as he could, even attempting to counter-attack with smaller Getsugas when he could, but each blow was draining his energy more and more. 

Suddenly, Hirako was right in front of him, his free hand pointing at Ichigo. Red energy began to collect on the tips of his fingers.

'_It's a cero, Ichigo!_' Hichigo yelled a warning.

But there was nothing he could do, even with the warning; it was close range, and Ichigo was too tired to be able to get out of the way in time. 

"Cero," Hirako said quietly, his voice strangely distorted by his hollow mask. Ichigo's vision was filled with the red light as the cero completely engulfed him.

For a moment, everything went white. Then, as he felt himself fall, it all faded to black.

"Ichigo!" Rukia's feeble cry echoed in his ears, but then that, too, faded. Ichigo fell into unconsciousness.

(Divider)

And finally, we reach the end of the chapter. XD Whew, a lot happened this chapter. There's a lot to comment on...

In fact, there's literally so much stuff in this chapter, I'm going to reread through everything and just make comments as I go. u.u'' Think of it as those odd commentary things you can choose to turn on while watching movies... You can skip it if you want, though I like to think I have some interesting comments... XD

This whole first scene where Hichigo tells Ichigo the reasons why he needs to suppress his spiritual energy was directly inspired by the fact that while Ichigo is fighting Hichigo, Hichigo lets off this giant Getsuga Tenshou bubble that just blows everything away. I thought that was awesome, and was disappointed when I realized that Ichigo would never actually use that attack himself... So, yeah.

Everyone in my stories thinks too much, I've noticed. First Ichigo, then Rukia, then Hichigo, it's almost irritating. Although in some cases it's funny listening to Rukia think too much, just because she's sooo obviously way off. XD

I hope I made the reasons for Ichigo going back to school clear. Hichigo mentions it once later, but I'm not sure it was clear, so since this ending note is going to be freaking huge anyway, I might as well mention it. Basically, Ichigo would be totally concentrated on his school work, and Hichigo would randomly call out "Now!" or something, at which Ichigo would have to suppress his energy and hold it there till the end of the class period. That way he can learn to suppress it at a moment's notice even when he's thinking about something else.

The scene with Orihime was boringly added in there partly as filler and partly just to show that the events of the show were still happening the way they usually went, except that Ichigo wasn't with the Vaizard... Which, of course, means that Hachi never met Orihime, so poor Tsubaki's still dead. TT Which is sad, I like Tsubaki...

This scene where Ichigo suddenly loses all coordination was all Katie's idea, I claim no rights to it, I just wrote what she said. XD Wow, talk about random. That's what you get when you put Katie and me in the same room.

Now, when Ichigo is, er, attempting to count for Rukia, did anyone catch what he actually said? "One... five? No, two. No, wait, eight?" ...XD Well, One Five is "Ichi Go." Then One Two was actually correct, but it's also "Ichi Ni", which is what Karin calls him. Then Eight was just way off, plus it's one of my lucky numbers. XD

Random note: Orihime used to be in this scene, but I had to edit her out, cause I had to get her to Soul Society somehow... That was fun trying to figure out...

Ah, the scene with Rukia going to Ichigo's mind. That was originally Shells' idea, I actually didn't like it much, I couldn't see how it would make much sense. ... But then I forced it to make sense by making it Urahara's fault. Funny how that fixes things. XD

The heart-shaped necklace is based off of a necklace that I wear all the time now that has pictures of Shells and DVD in it. ... I now worry constantly that by wearing it, I'm accidentally sending DVD into Shells' mind, but nothing seems to have happened so far, soo...

Karin and Yuzu are actually 11, not 9. But I discovered this after I wrote that scene, and changing it would have ruined the joke, because Ichigo _can't_ count that high yet. XD

Hichigo in sunglasses! XD I sketched a picture of this, it's on DeviantArt. Hichigo looks like he's about to say, "Yo, dude! Wassaaaaap!" ... So I pushed him off a building. Muahahahahahaha!

And Rukia is sooooo sooooo off. XD And Rukia and Urahara talk in circles. Shells thinks Urahara has guessed what's really going on, though. Now, is that a good thing or a bad thing, I dunno...

And finally, we reach the giant battle scene of DOOM. XD Again, I'm horrible at battle scenes, so this bit probably took me the longest to write. Which is horrible, because the _main_ two reasons I had for even writing this chapter at all was the very first training scene, and then this battle scene, and I almost had to totally take out the battle scene in order to have the story not die a horrible horrible death. XD

Eventually, in order to get anywhere with it, I had to get Shells to write the whole thing first, and then I based my writing off of what she wrote. It's not exactly her words, cause I have a slightly different writing style, plus I rearranged parts of her battle scenes to better fit my idea of the battle... but there were literally times when I just copied and pasted what she wrote into the scene. Thank you so much, Shells!

By the way, it's about ten times harder than it looks to get Grimmjaw to stab Rukia and have it sound plausible. XD Wow. But I needed her stab'd so that she'd quit interfering in the fight. XD Just watch, darn you!

And then Hichigo thinks too much. u.u Not quite so much out of character for him as it was for Ichigo, but it sounds off to me for some reason... Meh, anyway. All his reasonings were my own observations of the actual episodes... Ichigo is _so_ dumb during those...

And poor Rukia has a lovely breakdown. Eheh? Yeah, I figured, after the whole Kaien thing, she'd be particularly sensitive about the whole being-taken-over-by-a-hollow thing... Not that Ichigo gets that, of course, he's just confused. XD But then, Ichigo's always confused.

Then the Vaizard attack! And Hirako totally pwns Ichigo! Now he's been taken captive! Whatever will they do? The only person who could probably find Ichigo would be Orihime, but the only person who could conceivably _rescue_ Orihime at this point is Ichigo... What a dilemma...

On a random note, I kept continuously mistyping Hirako as Hichigo. o.O So there were some odd moments during this where Ichigo was fighting his hollow instead of the creepy Vaizard guy. XD Whoops.

I actually like the Vaizard, to be honest. XD They're very interesting characters. ... It's just that they're frustrating because we know nothing about them or how they know what they know... So, sorry for making them the bad guys of the story. XD It's just that Ichigo's obviously not exactly going to be thinking happy thoughts about them at this point...

And now I'm done with my huge author notes. ... and the huge chapter. You know that even_without_ the author notes, this chapter is 45 pages long? This chapter is 18,000 words long. That's longer than one of my 5 chapter long stories just by itself... Yeah, that's what I call me spending way too much time on this. XD Wow. 

SO, one last huge thanks to Shells, to Katie, and to B/k! Without them, this chapter wouldn't have gone up, and all those huge tons of alerts would have been for nothing. XD

Byez!


	3. Sand

Okay, so I'm finally starting to get a clue as to where to go with this story, so I'll start writing. XD Hopefully, it'll actually go where I want it to instead of just rambling forever.

Thanks so much to all of you who review, and even to those who just read it. The stats for this story are insane compared to my other stories, and you guys make me feel so happy!

Special thanks to Katie, for helping me come up with plots and theories, for beta reading, and just simply for being the best friend (outside of my own family) that I've ever had. Thank you so much!

And thanks to Lizeth for her art and her nice comments. I hope this chapter's as good as the last one! :D

Oh, Spoiler Warning. This chapter mentions plot points from all the way up to manga chapter number 315, (the end of the Pendulum chapters). If you haven't read that yet, this chapter may shock and amaze you. XD

... No, wait, it may do that anyway. o.O I've got some crazy stuff in here.

Hopefully there are no errors in this chapter... (There better not be. I've read through it like fifty times now, making corrections each time. XD)

And here's a reminder of what's going on, since it's been so long since the last chapter...

Previously on Feeling Hollow, Ichigo was fighting against Hirako, but he got Cero'd and taken prisoner... Muahahaha-(ahem) I mean, poor Ichigo. u.u

* * *

Ichigo jerked suddenly awake, instinctively pushing away from whatever it was that was holding him and trying to get to his feet.

Immediately, two things came to his attention. First, every muscle in his body felt like it was on fire, protesting the sudden movements he was making.

Second, he was in a sitting position, not lying down, and apparently, he'd been bound to whatever he was sitting on so that he couldn't get up. Which was probably _why_ his muscles were all stiff and sore.

Slowly, Ichigo let himself wake up the rest of the way, breathing hard and trying to take in his surroundings.

He appeared to be in a warehouse of some sort. Everything around him was dark, but a dim light was filtering in through the top windows of the building. In the corners, a few piles of cardboard boxes had been stacked. Some distance away, there was an arrangement of several sofas and chairs, all of which were empty.

He himself seemed to be tied to a simple, wooden chair with a length of rope. In addition to that, his arms had been bound behind him with a Kidou spell; probably the same kind as the first one that Rukia had put on him.

A glance at his clothing told him that the Vaizard had somehow gotten a hold of his body and had stuffed him back into it before tying him down.

Stiffly, Ichigo tested the strength of the ropes. They were pretty solid, but he decided that if he yanked hard enough, he might be able to break them. Unless they'd been Kido'd or something...

He knew that he could easily break the Kidou spell holding his arms down, though.

'_Oh, good. You're finally awake._' Hichigo spoke up suddenly, smirking when he realized that his comment had caused Ichigo to jump a little in surprise. Then, Hichigo winced. '_Get__ in here; those ropes are covered in that hollow repellant kidou._'

Ichigo nodded and pulled himself into his mental world so that he could talk to his hollow.

"Any idea where we are?" he asked Hichigo as soon as he found himself standing on the sideways buildings. "I mean, beyond some random warehouse somewhere?"

Hichigo shrugged, grinning. "I don't know any more than you do. Couldn't see anything after you were knocked out. I can only assume we're in the Vaizard's main base. Hopefully, we're still close to Karakura town, but you've been out for a really long time, so we could be anywhere by now."

"Great," Ichigo sighed. "Well, the bindings they have me under seem pretty easy to break out of. I doubt that actually getting out of here will be quite that easy, though."

Hichigo nodded, looking thoughtful. "The Vaizard can't have gone far. They wouldn't leave a prisoner unguarded, especially if they didn't put much effort into holding you down."

Ichigo groaned. "I can't believe I got captured in the first place. Where did all that speed come from? Isn't my Bankai supposed to be all _about_ speed?"

"It's part of the hollow abilities that the Vaizard have," Hichigo explained with a smile. "So far, I've only been teaching you how to use your own abilities, not mine."

Ichigo stared at him. "Wait, what?"

"What do you get if you _combine_ a shunpo with the hollow equivalent, a sonido?" Hichigo asked, smirking.

"Uhh..."

Hichigo rolled his eyes. "Really fast, Ichigo. You get really fast. And besides that, higher speed is an ability all advanced hollows gain anyway."

Ichigo scowled. "So why haven't you been teaching me stuff like that, then? I mean, I know I've been working really hard on the Getsuga Tenshou stuff, but I could have been learning how to use hollow powers at the same time, right?"

Hichigo shook his head. "Nope! You haven't _earned_ the use of _my_ powers yet," he accused, laughing a little. "You can barely handle your own!"

"Earned?" Ichigo protested. "If you hadn't noticed, some of those skills would have been nice to know earlier!"

"You're not ready for them!" Hichigo countered easily. "And besides, if they hadn't had that hollow repellant, we'd have been just fine."

Ichigo frowned. "Look, I've been working hard, and I've gotten a lot stronger! If I haven't earned being able to use hollow powers by now, then how in the world am I supposed to earn it?"

Hichigo smirked. "What do you have to do in order to earn Bankai?"

Ichigo had long since become used to Hichigo's seemingly random topic changes, and he thought about the question, knowing that it tied in somehow with what he had been asking.

After a moment, he got it. "I have to win our fight first before you'll teach me how to use hollow powers?" he asked incredulously. "I kind of need them right now!"

Hichigo started to retort, but then stopped, listening to something. "Someone out there's calling you. Do you care?"

Ichigo frowned. "I'd better find out what they want from me," he said grudgingly. With a sigh, he pulled himself out of the mental world.

"-ome on," a voice was saying. "I know you're awake. I saw you moving earlier."

Ichigo glared up at the speaker, a man with silvery hair, wearing a tank top. "What do you want?"

The man didn't look at all fazed by Ichigo's rudeness. "We have food ready and you need to eat."

Ichigo blinked, not quite expecting that. "Wait, what?"

"Food. Ready. Eating. Now. I assume you're hungry, right?"

"Uh..." Ichigo's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "How do I know it's not poisoned or something?"

The man rolled his eyes. "Because we're all grabbing from the same plate, and poisoning that would be stupid. Besides, we're not trying to kill you."

"Oh." Ichigo frowned down at the ropes holding him in place. "Do I at least get to have these taken off?"

Abruptly, the man reached over, grabbed a section of rope, and snapped it apart. The rest of the rope loosened and the Kidou spell holding Ichigo's arms was lifted.

"Gah..." Ichigo's shoulders were stiff from having been twisted in the odd position. Rubbing them, he gave the man a strange look. "Hang on; you're seriously okay with taking all the bindings off just so I can eat?"

The man gave him a deadpan look. "You could have broken free from those any time you wanted. The ropes were mainly there for your own safety. The Kidou spell was just to warn us that you were awake. Now come on. Hope you like curry."

Ichigo stared at him for a moment; then slowly, he stood and followed after him. "... This is the most bizarre kidnapping ever..." he commented, still rubbing one shoulder.

"We're trying to be nice," the man explained without turning around. "We're not bad people, and we're only doing this for your own good."

Ichigo was skeptic. "Sure..."

The man led him to where there was food set up and handed him a paper plate and a fork. Frowning slightly, Ichigo put curry onto his plate.

Glancing around, Ichigo realized that the rest of the group had already grabbed food and was now lounging around in the various chairs and sofas around the warehouse, eating and chatting with one another. They seemed to be ignoring Ichigo, though he could tell it was just an act. They were keeping an eye on him curiously, and they were all ready to jump him if they needed to.

"I'm Kensei, by the way," the man introduced himself. "That's Mashiro, Hiyori, Hachi, Lisa, Love, and Rose... and you know Hirako already." He pointed out each of the other Vaizard in turn.

Ichigo frowned. "Yeah. Great. Always nice to know who your kidnappers are," he said sarcastically. He took his food to an open seat far from any of the others and began to eat, ignoring all of them.

The others were totally unaffected by his moody silence and continued to ignore him back, simply chatting with one another. Ichigo listened to their various conversations uninterestedly for a while before focusing inward again.

"_So, what do you think?_"

Hichigo mentally shrugged. '_Why do you continue to assume that I know any more about this than you do, idiot?_' He smirked. '_Frankly, I'm just glad they took those ropes off._'

"_They really don't seem to be bad people,_" Ichigo commented, glancing around at each of them. "_They're honestly convinced they're helping me somehow._"

Hichigo snorted. '_Good people, bad people, whatever. You're their prisoner, and they're not going to let you go, no matter what you tell them. That makes them your enemies._'

Ichigo frowned. "_Enemies or not, there's not a whole lot I can do about them right now. I already tried fighting Hirako before. In order to defeat them, I'd have to be able to use hollow powers..._"

'_You're terrible at subtlety, you know,_' Hichigo rolled his eyes. '_You don't need to use my powers. Now shut up. I'm coming up with a plan..._'

Ichigo sighed, falling silent and focusing back on his food.

He hadn't been eating long when, suddenly, the entrance of the warehouse cranked open. Immediately, the Vaizard were all on their feet, their plates placed quickly on their seats and their hands ready at their sword hilts.

Ichigo put his own plate aside, getting ready to run. Even if this wasn't a rescue attempt of some sort, perhaps he could use the distraction to get away...

"Hello!" From the entrance, there came a familiar, cheery voice. "Don't worry! It's just me dropping in for a visit!"

The Vaizard all relaxed, picking up their food again and dropping back into their seats, except for Hirako, who remained standing.

"Yo, Kisuke!" Hirako greeted. "What brings you our way?"

Ichigo stared. There, striding towards the group, was the last person he'd have expected to see here: Urahara Kisuke.

"Oh, you know. This and that," Urahara answered vaguely, waving his fan slightly.

"You're just in time," Kensei spoke up from his chair. He gestured at the food. "We made plenty. Want some?"

Urahara grinned. "Don't mind if I do!" He snapped his fan shut, grabbed a paper plate, and dished himself up some of the curry. Then he took one of the empty seats and grinned around at them all. "So, how is everyone?"

Ichigo finally lost it and stood suddenly, pointing dramatically at Urahara. "What in the world are _you_ doing here?!" he exclaimed in shock.

Urahara was completely unfazed by the explosion. He smiled cheerfully. "Nice to see you're doing well, Kurosaki-san."

Ichigo sputtered unintelligibly for a moment before finally forcing words out. "So _you're_ behind all this, then?!"

"Not precisely, no," Urahara answered with a grin. "I'm just here visiting some old friends of mine."

"What do you want, Kisuke?" the short blonde girl asked in an annoyed tone.

"Want?" Urahara looked surprised. "Now, Hiyori-san, why would I come all this way just to ask for something from you?"

Hiyori scowled at him. "Because you always do."

"True!" Urahara agreed readily. "This time, though, I came to talk."

Hirako nodded. "About Aizen's plans, correct?"

"And those of Soul Society and of Kurosaki-san's group of friends," Urahara confirmed with a nod.

Ichigo scowled, confused by the amount of new information suddenly being thrown at him. "Hang on just a second! I want some sort of explanation here!"

"Later, Baldy!" Hiyori shot at him, irritated.

"Baldy?!"

"You heard me!"

"Oi! Oi! Quiet!" the green-haired goggle-wearing girl frowned at them. "Explanations are boring. Berry-tan can get them later."

Kensei nodded. "Let Urahara speak for now."

Ichigo fumed. "Berry-tan?! What's with all the stupid– Ow!"

Hiyori had gotten up and flipped one sandal up into the air, catching it and immediately using it to smack him in the head. "What part of sit down, shut up, and listen don't you get, Baldy?"

Ichigo automatically sat back down in surprise at the sudden outburst. Scowling, he almost exploded at her, but decided grudgingly that he would rather hear what Urahara had come to talk about than to get into a pointless argument with some short brat. With great effort, he reigned in his temper, glaring at her, but saying nothing.

Hiyori smirked at him for a moment before whirling on Urahara, gesturing at him with the sandal. "Now, hurry up and tell us what you came to say, Kisuke, and don't make me hit you too."

Urahara held up both hands in surrender. "No need to get violent, Hiyori-san! I'll get right to the point, then." He cleared his throat and began, suddenly serious. "First off, Yamamoto-sou-taichou contacted me, asking for my help."

Hiyori snorted. "He dares to stoop so low as to ask _you_ for help?" she asked sarcastically.

"Quiet, Hiyori," Kensei directed. She glared at him.

"What did he want?" Hirako asked with a frown. "What's he planning?"

Urahara frowned. "I suppose I should start with Aizen's latest move. You see, the goal of the Arrancar while they were here the other day was to kidnap Inoue Orihime."

Ichigo's eyes widened. "They kidnapped Inoue?" he demanded. "You said specifically that you were trying to prevent that!"

"I was," Urahara confirmed, his hat shading his eyes. "I made a mistake. I'm sorry."

Ichigo started to yell at him, but Hirako interrupted him with a sigh. "Did they kidnap Orihime-chan to use her powers?"

"She has very unique powers, to be sure," Urahara replied. "But mostly, I suspect that Aizen is trying to draw Soul Society's forces into Hueco Mundo in a rescue attempt. Soul Society's official stand is that they will not attempt to go after her."

"What?" Ichigo scowled. "They're not even going to _try_?"

"They will not," Urahara confirmed. "At least, not officially. However, they fully expect your friends to disobey their orders and go after Inoue-san themselves, and they are planning their attack on Hueco Mundo to serve as backup for them."

Hirako shook his head. "Aizen will have set up a trap," he commented. "He's going to bring the fight here eventually."

Urahara nodded. "Yes, and this is what the sou-taichou has asked me to do. Not only does he want me to open up gates to Hueco Mundo for the invading force, he wants me to open up gates to Karakura town for the rest of the captains."

"The captains are going to fight in town?" the Vaizard with an afro, Love, asked with one eyebrow raised. "That'll level the place."

"I've told Soul Society to build a replica of Karakura town on the outskirts of Rukongai," Urahara explained. "We will perform a spell that will swap the locations of the real Karakura town with that fake one. This way, Soul Society's main fighting force will be brought here to meet Aizen, and the citizens of Karakura town will have been moved to safety."

Ichigo frowned, trying to piece all the information together. "So, wait. My friends are going to break into Hueco Mundo by themselves... Meaning who, exactly?"

"Sado-san, Ishida-san, and likely Arbarai-san and Kuchiki-san," Urahara supplied.

"Only four people, and Soul Society's not going to back them up until they're ready for _their_ attack on Hueco Mundo? And then _that's_ going to supposedly trigger Aizen's trap and send his main forces to Karakura town. Except that it'll be a fake Karakura town?"

Urahara smiled. "That's the gist of it, yes!"

"What will happen to the people in Hueco Mundo?" Ichigo asked seriously.

"That I can't be sure about. I don't know the nature of his trap," Urahara admitted.

"And through all this, nobody at all is going to be trying to rescue me?"

Urahara grinned, waving his fan again. "Well, I managed to convince them that you'd be just fine without their help."

"_You _did?!" Ichigo's scowl deepened. "Are you trying to _help_ them keep me here?"

"Why, yes! Yes, I am!" Urahara smiled. Ichigo glared at him, but before he could protest, Urahara returned his attention to Hirako. "But at any rate, I came here to warn you about the swap. Hachi should know the Kido spells required to exclude this place from the original spell so that you can help fight should you wish."

The largest Vaizard, Hachi, nodded. "I know them."

Hirako frowned again. "Right. So, while you're here... Any theories on him?" he nodded at Ichigo.

"A few, actually," Urahara said, looking Ichigo over thoughtfully.

Ichigo scowled. "Theories about _me_? What are you talking about?"

His question was ignored. "His behavior has certainly been strange this past month," Urahara commented. "Especially the fact that he has been able to suppress his inner hollow on his own for this long without fear."

"If you wanted to know, why didn't you just _ask_ me?" Ichigo asked irritably.

Ichigo was ignored again and Urahara continued. "Before I can explain my theory on this behavior, however, I should mention that I don't believe his inner hollow is the same as yours."

"Not the same, how?" Hiyori demanded. "A hollow is a hollow, right?"

Urahara shrugged. "Mostly. Let me explain. You see, my observations on this started during the time that I was first training Kurosaki-san, when I gave him his powers."

Ichigo frowned, wondering where this was going. He knew that Urahara's training was why he had both shinigami and hollow powers, but he hadn't thought that Urahara himself had found anything strange about it.

"It went pretty much as expected right up to a certain point. Kurosaki-san had managed to stop the hollowification process halfway by gaining his shinigami powers and had therefore become part hollow. At that point, I figured that I would have to use the same techniques as I did for you, so that he wouldn't be stuck in an in-between form..."

Ichigo scowled. "So you _did_ make me a hybrid on purpose. Why would you-"

Urahara continued as if he hadn't heard him. "And that's when things got strange. Before I could do anything, Kurosaki-san broke through the hollow mask by himself and pulled it mostly off."

Hiyori didn't get it. "So? What's the big deal?"

Hirako, however, seemed to be thinking hard about this. "He broke through it himself? But, wait... Doesn't that...? Kisuke, what would that mean?"

"Having never dealt with a situation like this before, I really couldn't say exactly," Urahara said thoughtfully. "But I _believe_ that it means that Kurosaki-san is simultaneously a Vaizard _and_ a natural Arrancar."

Ichigo choked in shock. "I'm a _what,_ now?"

The other Vaizard seemed to think this was as bizarre of a statement as he did, and they all started talking at once. "Say _what_?!"

"How would that even be possible?!"

"What does that _mean_?"

Urahara held up his hands to silence them. "Let me explain..."

When it was quiet again, he continued. "You see, when a hollow removes its mask on its own, without the assistance of a force like the Hougyoku, it actually becomes far weaker than it originally was. Then, slowly, it is able to build up its power again, until eventually it becomes stronger than it used to be due to its new shinigami powers."

"Now what are you on about? This doesn't apply to him," Hiyori stated bluntly. "He can't be an Arrancar! He wasn't fully a hollow!"

"Kurosaki-san wasn't, no. But his inner hollow is. I've never heard of a hollow becoming a natural Arrancar so quickly after becoming a hollow in the first place, but that seems to be what happened..." Urahara explained.

"But... But _I_ pulled the mask off," Ichigo protested. "It wasn't..."

Urahara turned to him. "Do you know why you broke through it? Did you consciously decide to do so?"

"Uh..." Ichigo thought about this, trying to remember. "Well, I dunno... I guess I... just wanted it off...?"

Urahara nodded. "You appeared with both the hollow mask and the shinigami clothing. Even if your soul had completed the split between your shinigami half and your hollow half, they were both present at that time. Any move your hollow made then might have simply felt like automatic action on your part."

Ichigo scowled. "How do you know I didn't just do it myself, then?"

"Considering that you then left the mask mostly on until I hit it off of you, I assume the mask's presence didn't actually bother you very much," Urahara stated. "And if it didn't bother you, you wouldn't have taken it off at all."

Ichigo hesitated. "But... But it was definitely me in control after that, right? I mean, I remember what happened, and none of it was fighting for control or anything..."

Urahara nodded thoughtfully. "Well, that's why I mentioned that a natural Arrancar becomes weaker at first. A newly-made Arrancar's first instinct is to hide away until its strength returns."

One of the other Vaizard, Rose, spoke up suddenly. "So, what? You're saying that Ichigo's inner hollow turned itself into a natural Arrancar, and because of this, his shinigami side was strong enough to take complete control back again?" he guessed.

"Exactly. Ichigo is different from the rest of you. You are all Vaizard, yes, but for Ichigo, Vaizard means part Shinigami, part Arrancar," Urahara said slowly. "Thus, he is simultaneously a Vaizard and an Arrancar."

Ichigo stared at him. "_Is he right?_" he asked Hichigo.

'_No idea,_' Hichigo admitted. '_Do _you_ remember the stuff you did two seconds after you were born? Sounds interesting, though. Explains a lot..._'

Hiyori snorted suddenly. "Okay. Assuming your theory is correct, of course, what does this mean for him? Or for us, for that matter?"

Urahara shrugged. "It means that his inner hollow is a lot more powerful than any of yours were. It is at least as powerful as Aizen's Arrancar, though possibly not Espada level yet..."

Hichigo mentally smirked. '_I'll show _him_ not Espada level..._' Ichigo tensed slightly, but Hichigo was merely making a comment, not an actual threat.

"So, if Ichigo could harness that power..." Love said thoughtfully.

Rose shook his head. "He'd have to defeat his inner hollow first," he pointed out. "That will be more difficult for him..."

"That is, if he _wants_ to defeat his inner hollow," Urahara said mysteriously.

The Vaizard all stared at him. Hiyori glared. "That's stupid. Why wouldn't he-"

"How did you know...?" Ichigo stared at him again.

Hiyori whirled on Ichigo. "You _don't_ want to?!"

"Uh... Well..."

"Idiot!" She rounded on Urahara again. "Explain! Now!"

"I'm getting to it!" Urahara protested in an attempt to keep her from hitting him with the sandal she was brandishing at him.

Hiyori hit him with it anyway. "No, you're not! You're being deliberately vague and mysterious! Now, out with it!"

Urahara hid under his plate of food. "Okay! You see, because Kurosaki-san's inner hollow is an Arrancar, it has gained self-awareness. Intelligence. More than just what an ordinary hollow would have."

"So?"

"So," Urahara said tentatively, peeking out from under his plate, "that means there's a possibility that it has somehow persuaded Kurosaki-san to work _for_ it instead of fighting against it."

Hiyori growled, turning to Ichigo again. "Okay, I know you're an idiot," she began slowly. "But I don't care _what _it promised you, I didn't think you were _stupid_ enough to listen to a hollow!"

Ichigo scowled, getting to his feet. "I'll have you know, he didn't want anything do to with me! _I'm_ the one who suggested we work together. So you can just take that theory and stuff it-"

"_You_ suggested that you work together with the hollow living in your head?!" Hiyori smacked him with the sandal again. "That's even stupider, you idiot! Do you even _realize_ what it-"

"You don't know what you're talking about," Ichigo argued, using one arm to block the sandal as it flew at his head again. "Hichigo isn't like-"

"Hichigo?!" Hiyori laughed dryly. "You even gave the thing a name?"

Hirako smirked slightly. "Some name, though. How long did it take you to come up with that one?"

Ichigo glared at him. "Shut up."

'_He has a point, you know,_' Hichigo snickered.

"_Shut up!_"

"Okay, so Ichigo's been brainwashed by his inner hollow," Kensei said bluntly. "What should we do about this?"

"I have _not_ been brainwashed!" Ichigo protested, whirling on him. "If you people would just listen to me!"

Hirako looked thoughtful. "Our original plans for training won't work if he refuses to fight his hollow," he commented. "We really can't force him to do anything inside his own head, and we can't teach him anything out here either. If it's using him, anything we teach him will be taught to it too. I'm somewhat at a loss, here."

"I suppose it depends on what his hollow's motives are," Urahara pointed out. "What exactly is it trying to accomplish?"

"Control," Ichigo said with a scowl.

This brought the conversation to a sudden halt. Urahara raised an eyebrow at him, not having expected an answer to that. "Control? Over what?"

"Control over me," Ichigo clarified. He sat back down and folded his arms defiantly. "At first, he wanted me to just get out of his way and let him take over. He thought I was weak, with no way to become stronger. I convinced him to give me a chance to get stronger, so that whichever of us wins, we know we really deserve it. He's been training me for the past month or so, and eventually, we'll fight to see which of us gets control. That's it."

There was a long pause as the others thought about this.

Eventually, Hirako shook his head. "No way. Arrancar or not, no hollow would agree to something like that unless they had something to gain from it. It wouldn't go out of its way to train someone just for a 'fair fight'. Hollows aren't like that."

Ichigo scowled. "Well, maybe Hichigo _is_."

"I repeat: Hollows aren't like that. No hollows are, not even Arrancar," Hirako frowned. "You're clearly being manipulated. It must have some ulterior motive behind this 'training,' Ichigo."

"And what if he doesn't?" Ichigo argued. Inwardly, he hesitated. "_You... don't, do you?_"

Hichigo snorted. '_So what if I do? It's not something you'd worry about._'

Hirako was replying, but Ichigo wasn't listening to him anymore. "_What do you mean? What are you planning?_"

'_It's nothing earth shattering,_' Hichigo smirked. '_You wouldn't be interested._'

Ichigo sighed in exasperation and closed his eyes so he could focus on the conversation. "_You mean you just don't want to tell me. How am I supposed to trust you when you-_"

'_Nobody ever said you _should_ trust me,_' Hichigo shot back. '_You're the one who keeps doing that, idiot._'

"_So you _are_ manipulating me?_" Ichigo asked in disbelief. "_After all this time-_"

Hichigo rolled his eyes. '_All this time, and one second makes you doubt me?_'

"_But you just said..._"

'_I said that you shouldn't trust me. Not that I was manipulating you._' Hichigo laughed. '_Besides, whether you believe me or believe them is up to you, idiot. Listen to us argue if you want, but you reached your own conclusions about me a long time ago._'

Ichigo frowned. "_I decided to trust you, yeah, but that was before I realized you had other reasons for accepting this training. What are you planning?_"

'_I'm not planning squat. They're personal reasons and they won't affect you, so you don't need to know!_'

"_That again! You're talking in circles!_"

Hichigo shrugged. '_You're the one who keeps asking me questions that I already told you I wouldn't answer._'

Ichigo scowled, starting to retort, but Hichigo interrupted him.

'_You shouldn't let your conclusions be shaken so easily, Ichigo. Go with your instincts. Indecisiveness means hesitation. Hesitation is a weakness._'

"_You're only saying that because you know that my decision before was to trust you._"

Hichigo smirked. '_Believe what you will._'

Ichigo growled in frustration and opened his eyes again, scowling when he realized that Urahara and the Vaizard were all staring at him hesitantly. With a sigh, he made his decision.

"I've been training with him for a month now," Ichigo said stubbornly. "He is a hollow, but I think I can trust him, all right? I'd like to think I know the people I spend every day with."

Hirako raised an eyebrow at him; then he turned to Urahara. "He still doesn't know about Isshin, does he?"

Ichigo's scowl deepened. "Isshin? As in my father? What about him?"

Urahara frowned. "Shh..."

"My point," Hirako stated boredly.

"Granted," Urahara agreed.

Ichigo growled. "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing of importance," Urahara shrugged.

"The point is," Hiyori said with loud annoyance, "that we don't trust your hollow as much as you seem to. And frankly, we don't trust your judgment on the matter, neither."

"So now the same questions come up again," Kensei said thoughtfully. "What are his hollow's motives, and what do we do about all of this?"

There was a long silence as they contemplated this. Ichigo scowled at them all, knowing that they weren't about to listen to anything he had to say.

Finally, Urahara sighed. "Well, if you keep him here, you're not going to get anywhere with him. With things as they are, you really can't give him any training that his hollow won't be able to use against us should it decide to. He can't help you with your mission, or it might suddenly turn on you mid-battle... So if Kurosaki-san stays here, he will only burden you."

"You sound like you have a plan," Hiyori said suspiciously. "One that we're not going to like the sound of."

"It's the best idea I've got," Urahara shrugged. "But, why not send him to Hueco Mundo to help rescue Inoue-san?"

Hirako shook his head firmly. "No. That's a bad idea," he mentioned. "That puts him far beyond our reach if he needs help and really close to Aizen should his hollow decide to turn on us. Anyway, Hueco Mundo is the world of hollows; his hollow will be stronger there."

"Kurosaki-san is not likely to agree to anything you have in mind for him to do," Urahara pointed out. "Including gaining control over his hollow in a controlled setting."

"Right. So, how exactly is sending him to the world of the hollows going to help him? Or us?"

"That power boost from Hueco Mundo may be enough to convince his hollow to start that battle," Urahara explained. "So, as long as I send him in before I send his friends in..."

Kensei frowned in thought. "Then he may actually accomplish something while we're waiting for him to stop being an idiot."

Ichigo scowled. "Will you all quit talking about me like I'm not here?"

His protest was ignored. "This puts him very close to Aizen," Hirako warned again. "He will take advantage of that if he learns of it."

"Kurosaki-san can usually take care of himself," Urahara said cheerfully; but his tone held a note of uneasiness.

Lisa stood suddenly with a sigh. "I will escort him to Hueco Mundo."

Hirako glanced at her. "What?"

"Our main concern is keeping him from joining Aizen's forces against us," Lisa said matter-of-factly. "Having a Vaizard escort with him will deter it from switching sides and hurting anyone. I will go."

Hirako frowned. "If his inner battle begins while you're near, Ichigo will attack you," he warned.

Ichigo blinked. "What? I would-"

"I am aware of the danger involved," Lisa said calmly, ignoring Ichigo again. She smirked. "At least if I am there, I can lead him around and sic him on enemies. And keep him from attacking his friends."

Ichigo scowled. "What are you people talking about? Why would I be attacking anybody?"

"Idiot!" Hiyori rolled her eyes. "Don't you know anything? When you start fighting the hollow in your head, your body outside will turn into a hollow."

Ichigo frowned. "What are you talking about?" he asked again.

Urahara jumped in to explain. "I have no idea if the same thing actually still applies to you, Kurosaki-san. Typically, though, when you begin seriously fighting against the hollow in your mind, you lose control of your body during the battle."

"So... The one in control is...?"

"Neither you nor your inner hollow is actually in control at this time," Urahara clarified. "Rather, while your mind is away, your base instincts take over. You turn fully into a hollow, and you attack anything in range."

Ichigo thought about this. "Base instincts? Isn't that what a hollow is anyway?"

"Well, yes," Urahara nodded. "Except that hollows also retain a very basic knowledge of things from their previous lives: language, those they were close to, and so on. Here, there is nothing but fighting. Pure instinct."

"But we've been training for over a month," Ichigo noted with a frown. "Part of that was fighting each other. I'm pretty sure I haven't been rampaging all over town as a hollow while I wasn't paying attention."

"That was sparring," Urahara said solemnly. "There's a distinct difference when you're concentrating on trying to eat each other."

Ichigo coughed. "Wait, wait, wait. What? Trying to _eat_ each other?!"

"True," Urahara frowned. "With an Arrancar, it'll probably just be trying to kill you..."

'_Definitely,_' Hichigo had a disgusted look on his face. '_I imagine you'd taste funny. I don't like strawberries..._'

"_Ha ha. You're hilarious._" Ichigo intoned.

"I still don't like the idea of sending him to Hueco Mundo," Hirako said again. "Even with Lisa with him. Not that I don't think Lisa can handle it; I just think that purposefully sending one of our better fighters into the middle of a trap is a bad idea. And trapping Ichigo there probably isn't optimal either."

Lisa frowned. "We don't know what will happen in Hueco Mundo. For all you know, having me there will help. And anyway, Urahara will be sending multiple groups. He can send Ichigo and me first, and if I really need to be back here, Urahara can call my cell and I can use any of the other portals he opens to get back."

Ichigo scowled. "Don't I get a say in any of this?"

"You'll want to go help your friend, obviously," Kensei said dryly.

"I think it will work," Urahara said slowly. "It's probably your best course of action as far as Kurosaki-san is concerned."

Hirako sighed; then finally, he nodded. "Fine."

"When's the soonest you can have a portal open for us, Urahara?" Lisa asked.

Urahara thought about this. "I'll need a few hours at least."

Lisa nodded. "Call us when you have it set up. We'll meet you at your place."

"Gotcha." Urahara stood and, waving cheerfully, went out the warehouse's main entrance, leaving Ichigo fuming in the midst of the group of unfriendly Vaizard.

* * *

"How do you manage to make a perfectly straight path while you're _reading_?" Ichigo demanded, trying to build a shaky path of spirit energy under his feet as he ran.

Lisa was having absolutely no trouble with this gate between the real world and Hueco Mundo, forming a path effortlessly even as she continued to read. She took her gaze away from the book for a moment to raise an eyebrow at his horrible efforts, and then went back to reading again. "I've had training for this sort of thing."

Ichigo scowled. "Training for what, exactly?"

"Don't be so pathetic. It's just basic spirit energy manipulation," she informed him.

"This isn't basic!" Ichigo complained. "Basic is making your _own_ spirit energy do stuff. Making the spirit energy here do anything is a pain!"

Lisa uninterestedly turned a page of her book. "Then use your own. You've got enough."

Ichigo blinked. "You can do that?"

"I have no idea. I've never needed to try."

Ichigo scowled again. "Gee, thanks." But he tried her suggestion anyway.

He discovered quickly that attempting to use his own spiritual energy resulted only in creating a path so unbearably bright that he ended up blinding himself. "Gah!" Wincing in pain, he stopped running, trying to blink the white spots out of his vision.

When he could see again, the first thing he noted was that Lisa had also stopped moving. She still wasn't looking at him, but now she was trying to hide an amused smile.

Ichigo glared at her. "You knew that would happen," he accused.

"Not at all," Lisa said calmly. She continued moving, her pathway still as perfect as a paved sidewalk.

The very next step that Ichigo took cracked the path of spirit energy in front of him, causing him to teeter precariously on the edge before stepping back onto vaguely more solid ground.

Glaring at Lisa again, he focused back on the task of gathering energy into ground that he could actually walk on and ran after her.

After they'd been running for another good couple of minutes, Ichigo growled in frustration as he realized something. "_Oh for... Her path's perfectly fine; I can just use that!_"

He jumped over to Lisa's pathway, abandoning his own shoddy efforts. Now that he didn't have to worry about the path buckling underneath him, he was able to keep up with her much better.

At least, until a sudden uneven section of path, which he could have sworn wasn't like that a moment before, caused him to trip and land sprawling on the path in front of him. Lisa stopped, turned, and watched him get up with a totally neutral expression on her face.

Ichigo glared at her. "You just hate me, don't you? You volunteered to come just so that you could torture me, didn't you? Just who do you think you are?!"

A small smile touched the corner of her mouth. "Yadomaru Lisa," she answered. "Nice to meet you."

Ichigo growled in frustration. He glared at her, stepped deliberately off of her path, and continued making his own again, irritated at the slow pace she was making them travel.

Lisa watched him in amused silence for a while before also continuing on beside him, turning her attention back to her book.

Eventually, the two of them finally reached the end of the gate, smashing through a thin wall into what appeared to be a clean, white, dimly lit hallway.

'_Whoa..._' Hichigo said suddenly.

Ichigo blinked. "_Whoa, what? What are you talking about?_"

'_You don't _feel_ that?_' Hichigo asked in disbelief. He grinned. '_The Vaizard were right; this place is so full of spirit energy, I don't even know what to do with it all!_'

"_Great._" Ichigo scowled, tensing up slightly. "_Does this mean...?_"

Hichigo rolled his eyes with a smirk. '_No._ _Just keep moving._'

With a frown, Ichigo returned his attention to his surroundings, looking around at the featureless hallway. "So, this is Hueco Mundo?" he asked Lisa, who was watching him carefully. "It's... cleaner than I imagined..."

After a moment, she answered him. "Yes, it is. Now let's get moving." Lisa put her book in a carry bag she had at her side and started walking down the hallway. "We're in an underground entrance location to Hueco Mundo. We need to get to the surface before we can travel towards Las Noches, and there are bound to be guards."

Ichigo scowled. "Eh, there's no trouble if we run into guards. We can ask them where they're keeping Inoue."

Lisa rolled her eyes. "We already have a suspicion of where they're keeping Inoue Orihime. Aizen probably already knows we're here. There is no need to cause further ruckus."

"Whatever." Ichigo frowned, following after her.

'_If you do run into guards, you may need my help,_' Hichigo mentioned smugly. '_And I'd better not get hollow repellant jammed in my face again._'

"_I'm not going to need help for a few pathetic guards,_" Ichigo said irritably. But he asked Lisa anyway, "You know how to use that hollow repellant kidou whatever, right?"

Lisa glanced back at him over her shoulder with a raised eyebrow. "Of course. Do you need it?"

Ichigo scowled at her. "No. I was just checking. Don't use it on me, got it?"

Her face set in a frown and she paused in thought for a moment. "I won't use it unless you appear to be struggling for control," she finally agreed grudgingly.

Ichigo nodded. The two continued in silence.

Soon, the hallway opened up into a wide, open room. At the opposite end of the room was an enormous flight of stairs leading upward.

"That would be the way out," Ichigo commented. He began running towards it.

Lisa stopped walking altogether, glancing around the room as if waiting for something to happen. Ichigo ignored her and kept going...

Until an Arrancar suddenly zoomed in over his head and landed between him and the stairs. Ichigo also came to a halt, frowning. "And that would be the guard."

The Arrancar grinned at him. "Like, totally awesome! Intruders! And here I thought my day was gunna be, like, totally boring, ya know?"

Ichigo stared. Just what he needed. A _preppy girl_ Arrancar...

The Arrancar was actually still very hollow-like. Her body was mostly that of a light red and white striped bird. Her broken mask, pulled up to reveal a human face, was placed in her straight brown hair like an oversized headband.

Reaching over his shoulder, Ichigo grabbed the hilt of his sword and unsheathed it. Behind him, Lisa drew her own sword, looking bored.

The Arrancar giggled. "A Shinigami and a girl with a sword! Like, totally my lucky day! Come on! Like, attack already! I'm, like, so totally ready for you!" She spread her wings and prepared to take off.

Ichigo ran forward, swinging Zangetsu and releasing a small Getsuga blast. As he expected, she dodged, and neither his sword nor the energy attack hit the Arrancar.

Abruptly, she used sonido to move to one side of him and, in the air now, dove straight for his head at top speed.

He turned and blocked with his sword. Her talons screeched across the surface of the blade as she flew past, sending sparks flying. A movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention and he whirled again, just barely blocking her sharp claws as she zoomed past his head again.

Ichigo scowled. He could have sworn that she had been attacking from the opposite direction; even with flash steps, there was no way she could have attacked from that side that quickly. Unless...

He stopped, looking quickly around the room to try to confirm his suspicions. The Arrancar had landed a short distance away, looking back at him over her shoulder with a grin. However, on the other side of the room, another Arrancar, one that looked exactly the same, had perched on a high ledge.

"Like, it looks like you've figured out my ability," one of the two chirped happily.

"It's, like, duplication!" The other one exclaimed.

"Duplication!" another voice called from another corner of the room.

"Duplication!" yet another voice called.

The first one spoke again. "It's, like, so totally awesome!"

Ichigo growled in annoyance, his grip on his sword tightening as he tried to figure out which of the rapidly appearing bird girls to attack first. Lisa sighed and stepped up beside him.

"I'll take the ones on the right side of the room, and you get the left."

Ichigo nodded and ran at them. Taking three of them down in quick succession, he scowled when he realized that as quickly as he killed them, more duplicates just appeared in their place.

They all laughed derisively. "Like, whatever, silly!" one of them giggled from within the swarm.

"You're, like, so totally never gunna win if ya, like, keep up that lame attack!"

"Yeah, cause, like, you're never gunna be able to, like, find the real me!"

"Like, you should, like, totally just give up now?"

"Cause, like, this is, like, so totally pointless, ya know?"

Ichigo sliced through another couple of bird people, who screamed in pain and dissolved. "Just shut up already!" he yelled.

"What_ever_!"

"How, like, totally rude!"

"Like, yeah! Totally! Did you, like, never learn, like, manners?"

Ichigo lunged at the closest Arrancar, growling in frustration. Before he could hit it, though, all of the duplicates suddenly shrieked, spreading their wings wide and taking off all at once. The noise of the shrieks was shrill enough that Ichigo almost thought that it was an attack by the Arrancar, but then each duplicate began to disintegrate one at a time.

Coming to a halt, Ichigo frowned, looking around in confusion. After a moment, he spotted Lisa across the room, standing over the dissolving forms of at least fifteen of the Arrancar duplicates, calmly cleaning off her sword. Feathers were scattered everywhere.

When she saw him staring at her, she sheathed the sword. "Found the real one," she informed him needlessly.

With a sigh, Ichigo sheathed Zangetsu and put it on his back. "Obviously."

Abruptly, the walls began to shake, large chunks breaking away from the top. Ichigo scowled. "What's going on now?"

Lisa began running towards the stairs. "She must have rigged the place to collapse if she was killed," she called back at him. "Hurry."

Ichigo nodded and began to run after her, the stairway destroying itself around them as they ascended.

They had almost reached the surface when the whole thing collapsed completely, filling in with white sand.

Clawing past it, Ichigo burst out into the open, choking up sand as he tried to take in air. Lisa came up beside him a moment later, also spitting sand and coughing hard.

As he emptied large amounts of sand from both sleeves and the front of his shirt, Ichigo groaned. "Great, now I've got sand everywhere," he complained.

Lisa was having a hard time maintaining her usual calm composure as she tried to shake the sand out of her braided hair and empty it out of her clothes and her bag. She said nothing, still coughing a little.

Eventually, when Ichigo was sure he still had everything important with him and he was halfway sure that he was mostly sand-free, he began to look around his surroundings.

All around, there was nothing but sand and white, dead trees. The sky above was black, and a strange crescent moon gave everything an eerie glow, but there were no stars to be seen. "So, _this_ is Hueco Mundo... There's nothing here..."

Lisa made a noncommittal noise, still brushing sand away from her belongings.

Continuing to gaze around, Ichigo suddenly spotted what was obviously Las Noches, looming huge in the distance behind them. He gaped at it. "Whoa... That's Las Noches? It's gigantic!"

Lisa turned to see what he was looking at it and frowned. "It is," she agreed solemnly.

"How are we going to be able to find Inoue in there?" Ichigo asked, mostly to himself. "Look at the trees down at the base; they're tiny. That place could take months to search."

Lisa shrugged. "We'll worry about that later. Come on, let's go. It's going to take a while to get there." With that, she started running. Ichigo quickly followed her.

After a while, Ichigo became sick of the silence and tried again to start up a conversation.

"I'm not sure what I was expecting from a hollow world, but this wasn't it," he commented.

Lisa glanced back at him, but didn't respond.

Slightly annoyed by her lack of interest, Ichigo continued. "I mean, it's totally devoid of life... There's nothing here. Even the trees are dead." Ichigo frowned at one.

"They're not really trees. They're made out of white stone," Lisa informed him boredly.

Ichigo blinked. "Really?"

"And there is life," Lisa said. "They're just all hollows." She pointed out a small lizard-looking animal with a mask and a hollow hole in its back.

Ichigo frowned at it as they passed by. He hadn't even noticed them before, but now that he looked, he noticed several small creatures like these here and there. "That's weird. Don't hollows eat people? What does a tiny thing like that live on way out here?"

Lisa just shrugged and continued to run in silence.

Ichigo scowled. So much for starting a conversation...

After a much longer time, Ichigo began to wish he had a watch of some sort. It felt like they'd been running forever by now, though the moon above them hadn't moved an inch and, ahead of them, Las Noches seemed exactly the same distance away as when they'd started out. It was impossible to tell time...

"How long have we been running?" Ichigo finally asked exasperatedly. He was beginning to tire out.

Lisa didn't miss a beat. "About three hours," she answered.

"Three hours?" Ichigo exclaimed. "That's impossible; shouldn't the moon have moved at least a little by now?"

"It's always night in Hueco Mundo," Lisa explained. "If you want to take a break, we can."

Ichigo scowled again. "We should try to at least make it to Las Noches before we stop," he said stubbornly.

"That will take us a long time. I suggest we rest for now." Lisa slowed to a stop and, resting her hands on her knees, she took in deep breaths.

A few paces ahead of her, Ichigo also came to a stop, realizing that all the running had left him more out of breath than he'd expected. With a noise of frustration, he let himself collapse onto his back in the sand, breathing hard.

Lisa raised an eyebrow at his sprawled position and slowly lowered herself to a sitting position on the sand to rest.

For several minutes, they stayed like that in silence. As soon as Ichigo's breathing was even again, he sat up, glaring at Las Noches. "It never seems to get any closer! Just how far away is this place, anyway?"

"A lot further than it looks," Lisa answered.

Ichigo sighed. "It must be even huger than I thought," he lamented.

"It is," Lisa stated.

Ichigo glared at her. "How would you know?"

She stood without answering his question. "If you have breath enough to ask stupid questions, you have breath enough to run again. Let's go."

Grumbling, Ichigo got to his feet again. "Why do you hate me so much, anyway?" he complained.

Lisa ignored the question, simply starting to run again. Ichigo scowled and ran after her.

Hichigo mentally snickered. '_You have to ask that question a lot, don't you? Why _do_ so many people hate you, Ichigo?_'

"_Shut up._"

Lisa spoke up again after a moment of running. "Ichigo, listen up. I've got something important to say to you."

Raising an eyebrow at her, Ichigo frowned. She had refused to talk to him before, and now suddenly she had something she wanted to say? "What about?" he asked curiously.

"Shinji gave me permission to tell you our story. You know, how we became Vaizard." She glanced over at him to gage his response.

Ichigo's frown deepened. "Why do I need to know something like that? I mean, obviously Urahara-san was involved. Do I need to know more?"

Lisa's eyes flashed in annoyance and her gaze returned to their goal as they ran. "Shinji thinks you'll trust us more if you know where we come from. And besides that, you obviously have some big misconceptions about Urahara that need cleared up."

"Misconceptions, how?" Ichigo demanded. "Unless someone _else_ dressed in a funny bucket hat and sandals cut my soul chain and dropped me into a giant hole, this is all Urahara's fault, right?"

Lisa hesitated, and then frowned. "I'll admit that I am unsure of his intentions with you. He never told us much about you. However, perhaps we'd better start at the beginning of the story."

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Not like we have anything else to do out here. Go ahead."

With a sigh, Lisa began, "The part you need to know starts about one hundred years ago, about nine years after Urahara Kisuke was promoted to 12th division captain..."

* * *

Rukia stood on one of the balconies that looked out over the gardens of her brother's mansion, staring down at a Koi pond below and brooding to herself.

"Hey." Someone had come up beside her. Rukia glanced over to see Renji leaning on the balcony ledge a short distance away. "What are you thinking?"

Rukia hesitated for a moment; then she sighed. "Trying to plot how to sneak past Niisama's guards to use his Senkaimon."

Renji laughed. "Me too," he admitted. "Got any good ideas yet?"

"Unfortunately, no," Rukia frowned. "I never was any good at sneaking out and, anyway, if I have you with me, it'll be impossible."

"Ouch," Renji grabbed his chest as if he'd been stabbed, still grinning at her. "You wound my pride."

"Good," Rukia shot at him jokingly. "Have _you_ got any ideas?"

Renji sighed, shaking his head. "Nah. One thing about the captain; he keeps his guards well trained."

Rukia nodded, leaning both arms on the railing and resting her chin on them. "It's just not fair," she complained softly. "It's my fault Inoue's in this situation in the first place, and we can't even..."

Renji looked up at her in surprise. "Your fault?" he asked with disbelief. "Your fault how?"

"I'm the one who suggested she come to Soul Society to train with Unohana-taichou," Rukia said with a frown, glancing at him. "I brought her here. I should have known she'd want to come to help if she heard there was an attack, and traveling from one world to the other is the most dangerous place to be during an attack. I should have known that-"

"You couldn't have known this was going to happen," Renji argued.

Rukia frowned at him. "And it's my fault that the captains think she's a traitor, too," she continued stubbornly. "If I hadn't been so weak in that fight, I wouldn't have gotten so hurt. She wouldn't have had to come heal me, and Ichigo wouldn't have been..." she trailed off.

Renji took her by the shoulders and forcefully turned her to face him, scowling down at her. "Ichigo will be all right," he said firmly. "He can take care of himself. You getting hurt has nothing to do with it either; not with Inoue and not with Ichigo either. And don't you dare let me hear you call yourself weak again, you hear me?"

There was a long silence as Rukia took deep breaths, unable to make eye contact with her friend.

Finally, she spoke again. "Renji, Ichigo was in trouble, and I couldn't do anything," she whispered, finally voicing what was really bothering her. "Not a single thing. I couldn't even stand."

Renji hesitated, not sure what to say to her.

She didn't mind; she just kept talking. "This whole month, I've been trying my best to help him; to help anyone. But all I keep doing is getting in the way, or making things worse." Rukia laughed bitterly. "Maybe it's better that I'm not allowed to go after Inoue. I'd probably just screw everything up."

"You wouldn't," Renji frowned at her, speaking forcefully.

"I would," Rukia insisted, glaring up at him. "Ichigo even told me I was in his way, and that I should go help everyone else instead. I didn't listen to him, and sure enough-"

"Rukia, you were there to support him through all this. You did everything you could possibly have done, and that's all anybody can ask of anyone." Renji said, frowning. "And besides that, though I doubt that idiot would ever admit it, I know he's grateful to have you around, despite what he tells you."

Rukia scowled at him. "How could you know something like that?"

"I know I always am..." Renji answered softly. He suddenly realized that he'd said that out loud and let go of her shoulders, glancing away from her.

Rukia sighed and looked back down at the pond below, not noticing his embarrassment at the statement. "Thanks, Renji."

Renji laughed slightly, shaking his head. "I think I've told you before about thanking me for stupid things." He leaned back on the railing again. "Someone's gotta be the one to beat some sense into you sometimes."

Rukia smiled. "Thanks," she said again anyway.

Renji smirked at her and was about to respond when the sound of approaching footsteps on the wooden balcony caught their attention.

Byakuya was walking slowly towards them, carrying a bundle of cloth under one arm.

Renji suddenly realized how close to Rukia he was standing and tried to move inconspicuously away from her. Rukia frowned at him; then she returned her attention to her brother.

"Were you looking for me, Niisama?" she asked stiffly.

Byakuya nodded.

"I'll just head out, then," Renji said quickly. "I don't want to-"

"I wish to speak with you also, Arbarai-san," Byakuya stated.

Renji fumbled for a moment; then chose to remain silent, awaiting what Byakuya had to say. Byakuya seemed vaguely amused by this.

"The two of you will need these," he said simply. He held out the bundle of cloth for Rukia to take.

Curiously, Rukia took it, parting it to reveal that it was actually two bundles. With a frown, she passed one of them to Renji and looked up at her brother. "What are they?"

Byakuya smiled slightly. "Capes, of course. The place you are heading is very dusty. You'll need them." With that, he turned and began to walk away.

"Niisama... What...?"

He glanced back at her, one eyebrow raised. "My orders were to take you back to Soul Society if you refused to come yourself. They did not include anything that said I had to keep you under lock and key afterward. You will be leaving, correct?"

Rukia's eyes widened as she realized that her brother was giving them permission to go, despite Soul Society's orders. Not only that, but he had equipped them for a trip into Hueco Mundo.

"Niisama, you're... defying Soul Society?"

Byakuya frowned. "I am not," he stated, sounding offended. "I believe I just said; my orders have nothing to do with this."

"But..."

"Have a nice trip," Byakuya interrupted, beginning to walk away again. "Come back safely."

Rukia smiled. "Thank you!" There was a pause, and then she elbowed Renji, who also called out thanks, with some surprise.

Byakuya raised a hand in acknowledgement and disappeared around a corner.

Hesitantly, Renji smirked. "Well, what do you know? I guess he's not such a bad guy after all. Come on, let's get to the Senkaimon! Urahara-san will be able to open the gate to Hueco Mundo for us."

Rukia wasn't really paying attention to him. "Hueco Mundo... to rescue Inoue?"

Renji raised an eyebrow at her. "Yes. Where else?"

"But what about... I mean, there are two people who need rescuing, right? Should we really be going after Inoue, or should we be looking for Ichigo?"

"Inoue should be our first priority," Renji told her. "For one thing, we already know where she is. We have no idea where the Vaizard took Ichigo. Besides, Ichigo has the ability to take care of himself should he need to. Inoue does not."

Rukia frowned. "But..."

Renji sighed. "From your own report, the Vaizard are not trying to hurt him, or any of us. If anything, they're trying to give him some, from what you told me, much needed help."

"And what if he doesn't want that help?" Rukia shot at him. She had left all mention of Ichigo's inner hollow out of her official reports, but she'd told Renji everything. She had told him her thoughts on the Vaizard's plans before, too, but she felt she needed to say it again. "He should be able to make his own decisions on the matter!"

"Whether he wants that help or not, Ichigo himself is not in danger," Renji reasoned, folding his arms. "And the longer he stays with them, the less danger he's in. You saw Ichigo's inner hollow take over, did you not? If the Vaizard can make that stop..."

Rukia looked downcast. "Ichigo was about to tell me something about that, though. I don't know what it was, but..."

Renji sighed and backtracked to the original subject. "Ichigo is not in danger. Inoue, on the other hand, is in Hueco Mundo with Aizen and his Arrancar. There's no telling what he's planning on doing with her. She needs our help now."

"... I know. I'm sorry." Rukia looked away. "I just wish..."

Renji shook his head. "I understand that you feel responsible for what happened to Ichigo. But you shouldn't. You had nothing to do with it. Now, we can't do anything for him at the moment. But we _can_ help Inoue. So, let's go."

Rukia's expression hardened and she nodded solemnly, throwing the cape on over her shoulders. Smiling, Renji fastened his on as well and the two of them headed silently to the Senkaimon.

* * *

Ichigo frowned as he listened to the end of Lisa's story, thinking hard as they continued to run. "So... Aizen has been planning all of this for over a hundred years?"

"This, and probably more," Lisa confirmed.

"So, my friends and I... We're all nothing but afterthoughts to all these plans. We're really only here because we happened to stumble into this mess that you guys have been dealing with all this time. We're just last minute recruits."

"To some extent," Lisa agreed. She frowned at him. "I don't see why this bothers you. You're a backup plan. It just means the weight of the world's not on your shoulders. Gives you some freedom."

Ichigo didn't respond, still trying to think about this.

Lisa smirked at him. "Oh, I see. That's it."

Ichigo scowled. "What?"

"You've developed a hero's complex. You _like_ being told, 'You're our last hope, Ichigo! If you fail now, it's all over!' and being able to run in and save the day; a big hero."

"Shut up. That's not it." Ichigo came to a stop and glared at her.

Lisa stopped as well, turning back and frowning at him. "Isn't it? What do you fight for, Ichigo?"

Ichigo hesitated. "I... I guess I fight because I have to. I have to help my friends..."

Hichigo snorted in disapproval and mentally shook his head. Ichigo frowned.

Lisa watched him carefully. "And now that you've been told that you really _don't_ have to? There are others coming to fight. You can stop now, and the only person you'll affect is yourself. What is your motivation?"

"All I'll affect is me?" Ichigo scowled at her. "I don't think so. I'm not giving up now. I've got people counting on me."

Lisa gave him an odd look. "Nobody even knows where you are right now. Counting on you? They think you need rescued. And besides, I just said; they don't need your help. Soul Society will be sending them captains as backup. Try again. Why do you fight, Ichigo?"

Ichigo hesitated again; then he sighed. "I fight because I want to become stronger. So that I _can_ protect them if I need to." Hichigo still looked somewhat annoyed at his answer, so Ichigo added, "And also... because I guess, to some extent, I like fighting."

Lisa smiled slightly. "Mmhmm, sounds like a major case of hero's complex to me."

Ichigo scowled again. "Hey..."

She smirked and set off running again. "Come on, Hero. We're off to go rescue the princess."

"Hey, knock it off," Ichigo complained, running after her. "When did this turn into make-fun-of-Ichigo time? We were talking about you!"

Still smiling, Lisa glanced back at him. "Fine. Anything in particular you wish to know, or are we done talking?"

Ichigo blinked. "Uh..."

"I thought so. I've already told you everything you need to know."

Ichigo scowled. "Hey, just because I couldn't come up with something in the two seconds warning you gave me..."

Lisa was about to answer when suddenly a much louder voice suddenly interrupted her.

"Two seconds warning is more than intruders like you will get from me! Bwahahaha!"

Lisa and Ichigo both came to an abrupt halt as the sand before them began to rise up into the air, quickly forming a giant column that towered at least ten times their own heights over them. Looking up, Ichigo saw that the column had formed a face, two arms, and a hollow hole.

"What the... a hollow made of sand?" he exclaimed.

"I am Lunuganga, Guardian of the White Sand," the giant hollow bellowed. "And I'm going to crush you!" It brought one of its giant arms flying straight towards them.

Lisa and Ichigo dove in opposite directions, rolling to avoid the hollow's arm as it smashed into the ground. Sand flew up all around them.

In one swift movement, Ichigo grabbed Zangetsu's hilt and swung the sword forward, the hilt wrap releasing the blade a split second before blue energy formed along its length. "Getsuga Tenshou!" The attack sliced right through the pillar of sand, cutting it in two.

Resting his sword on one shoulder, Ichigo smirked at Lisa. "Guess I'm not so useless after all, huh?"

Lisa just raised an eyebrow at him and unsheathed her sword, facing back toward the split column as if expecting it to continue attacking.

"Hey, what are you...?"

"No regrets, intruder?" the sand hollow's rumbling voice interrupted him. "You will soon regret that!"

Ichigo stared up at it as the two split pieces came back together, reforming into the hollow's face as perfectly as if it'd never been attacked. "What the...?"

"It's made out of sand, Ichigo," Lisa informed him. "Physical attacks aren't going to do anything." She put her hands together and began the incantation for a kidou spell.

Ichigo scowled. "But Getsuga Tenshou is an energy attack!" he protested.

'_It's like a firecracker,_' Hichigo realized what the problem was and quickly explained. '_Big explosion, but not enough heat concentrated in one spot long enough to do much lasting damage. You need enough heat to melt the sand into glass so it can't move._'

Ichigo rolled to one side to avoid another blow aimed at his head. "Great! Very useful! I don't have anything that can do that!"

"Way of Destruction number 63, Lightning Cannon!" Lisa completed her kidou spell, gathering lightning around her hands and firing it in a wave at the sand hollow. Wherever the attack hit, a line of glass was left in its wake.

Unfortunately, the spell wasn't large enough to stop the hollow; it simply moved around the sections of sand that were becoming glass. "Trying to restrict my movements with a weak attack like that?" it bellowed, swinging at her with a huge fist. "You'd have to melt the entire desert to stop me!"

Ichigo growled. "It's got to have some sort of weakness!"

"Well, we're not figuring it out by just standing here," Lisa shot at him. "Do you have any water attacks?"

Ichigo stared at her. "Water?!"

"In a desert, it's the one thing it wouldn't be used to! It might-"

"Too much talk!" the hollow yelled. "I'll just bury the both of you alive!" Abruptly, the sand beneath Ichigo and Lisa began to slide, forming a giant sinkhole of sand.

Ichigo kicked hard to free his feet from where they had sunk into the sand, turning away from the center of the sinkhole and beginning to run up the slope to get away from it.

Some distance away from him, Lisa was doing the same, though she appeared to be having much more luck; she had made it almost to the more solid sand again, chanting another kidou spell under her breath as she ran.

'_Idiot! Use the air to stand on, not the sand!_' Hichigo directed. '_Are you a Shinigami or aren't you?_'

"_Oh, right!_" Ichigo did so, suddenly able to run much faster now that his feet weren't sinking with every step.

Ahead of him, Lisa fired her kidou spell over her shoulder. A dark blue blast of energy of some sort flew back and collided into one of the hollow's arms, blowing it off. It crashed to the ground and exploded into a pile of sand.

The sand hollow gave a loud cry of irritation. As it lost its concentration to reform the missing arm from the sand around it, the sinkhole stopped growing and Lisa was able to make it to more solid ground.

Then the sand hollow discovered that Lisa's attack was more effective than it had first appeared; the kidou spell had left mud on the side of the hollow where its arm used to attach, and the newly reformed limb was mostly a muddy mess. "Why you...! How dare you?"

It swung down at Lisa with its remaining good arm, slamming it into the ground repeatedly in a maddened attempt to smash her into the sand. Lisa was able to dodge each time, though barely, and she was no longer able to concentrate on chanting kidou spells.

Ichigo finally crested the top of the slope and, timing his attack so that he wouldn't hit Lisa, sent a Getsuga Tenshou at the sand hollow, trying to distract it. The attack connected solidly with its good arm, and it fell into the sand the same way the other one had.

The sand hollow howled angrily, easily reforming the arm and slamming its hand into the ground in front of itself. Abruptly, the sand beneath Ichigo's feet seemed to liquidate. Something, probably the hollow's hand, wrapped around his ankles and started dragging him down quickly underneath the surface.

With a startled cry, Ichigo began sending small Getsugas down at the quicksand at his feet, but they had no effect. Barely able to keep his tight grip on Zangetsu's hilt, most of Ichigo's body disappeared below the surface along with his sword.

Lisa, having used Ichigo's distraction to get another quick kidou spell ready, fired it at the hollow. The blue spell glanced sharply off of its arm and smashed into the sand in front of it. Something down there exploded from the contact and large chunks of hardened sand went flying everywhere.

The sand hollow's loud screams filled Ichigo's ears as the force of the explosion sent him toppling head under heels deeper into the still water-like sand.

No longer sure which way was up, unable to tell which direction the continued sounds of battle were coming from, and totally buried now, Ichigo had just one last thought before he blacked out. '_Why does this keep happening to _me_?_"

* * *

"I thpy... thomething... white!"

"The sand..."

"Right! Letth try another one! I thpy... thomething... white!"

"The sand..."

"Right! You're really good at thith!"

Voices... They were distant, but Ichigo could still barely make them out. One was the voice of a child, and the other was an annoyed teenage boy...

Trying to lift his head, Ichigo quickly discovered that he couldn't move a muscle. There was something tightly packed all around him, preventing him from even trying to struggle free... Attempting to open his eyes just filled them painfully with sand.

Great. He was buried in the sand in Hueco Mundo, and although he could hear people somewhere above him, he had no way of letting them know he was here and no other way of getting unburied either...

He just had to hope these people would notice him... But he had no idea how far under the sand he was either, so that seemed like a pretty small chance...

"The sand..."

"You're right again! Okay, I thpy... thomething..."

"Let me guess. The sand."

"... Wow... I didn't know you were thychic, Ithida-than!"

The boy sighed in irritation. The child continued. "Okay, Okay, new one. I thpy... thomething... ... orange?"

"The sa... Wait, orange? What could possibly be orange way out here?"

"Hey, Bawabawa, thtop! Thtop! I wanna thee what it ith!"

A rumbling in the sand, which had been growing louder for the past few minutes, slowed to a stop, and Ichigo heard quick footsteps coming from somewhere above him.

"Look! Look! I found an orange busth!"

Ichigo suddenly felt small fingers entwine themselves in his hair and pull sharply. He yelped in pain, his mouth filling with sand. Then, realizing that he was obviously close enough to the surface that his hair was getting yanked on, he started trying to struggle to the top.

"Whoa! It'th a _moving_ orange busth!"

"It's a what? Nell, what are you..." More footsteps began heading his direction for a while before suddenly stopping. "Nell, that's not a bush! Kurosaki, is that you?"

"Ichigo?" a third voice asked in wonder.

With the help of the child yanking on his hair and people above him digging, Ichigo was able to get his face above the surface so he could actually breathe properly. Choking up sand, he blinked up at his rescuers.

"Ishida?" he coughed.

"Kurosaki, what in the world are you doing buried in the sand in Hueco Mundo?!" Ishida asked in irritation, digging up one of Ichigo's shoulders and pulling on it.

Ichigo laughed a little. "That's a good question... Is Chad here?"

In answer, Chad grabbed Ichigo's other shoulder. Between the two of them, they soon got Ichigo up out of the sand.

"Aaaugh..." Ichigo groaned, trying to dump all of the sand out of his clothing again. "Great. I have sand in places I didn't even know existed... I hate this place."

"Kurosaki, what are you _doing_ here?" Ishida demanded.

Ichigo grinned at him. "Well, I was trying to rescue Inoue. Guess I wasn't doing too hot of a job though, huh?"

"What happened?" Chad asked.

"Ran into some sort of guardian sand hollow thing," Ichigo explained, frowning. "It's really hard to attack something made of sand. I got buried pretty quickly."

Chad frowned slightly. "What I meant was, Urahara-san told us that you'd been kidnapped by some people that he called Vaizard..."

"Yeah, how did you get away from them? How are you in Hueco Mundo? And how'd you even know about Inoue-san?" Ishida questioned.

"Urahara, Urahara, and Urahara," Ichigo answered grimly. "Are Rukia and Renji here yet? And who are these guys?" he gestured at a young girl and two humanoid hollows, who were standing to one side, watching him curiously and whispering to one another.

"Urahara?" Ishida asked incredulously. "Urahara-san rescued you?"

Ichigo scowled. "Not exactly. He told us about what happened to Inoue and I got dropped off here to go help rescue her."

Ishida watched Ichigo for a moment, a frown on his face. "So, these people, the Vaizard... they kidnapped you, but then they just let you go?"

"Well... not 'let go', exactly," Ichigo rubbed the back of his head. "More like forced to go, with a guard watching me like a hawk."

"There's a Vaizard here?" Ishida glanced around.

"Not _here_, obviously." Ichigo rolled his eyes, getting to his feet. "I kind of ditched the guard when I got buried by that sand hollow. Speaking of, we'd better get moving or she's going to find me again."

"Kurosaki, you will never cease to amaze me," Ishida sighed, shaking his head and getting up as well.

Ichigo shrugged, and then turned to frown at what looked like a large slug-like hollow. "What is that?" he asked. "And you never did say who those three are... Why are you hanging out with a bunch of hollows?"

"Bunch of hollowth? How rude!" the girl interjected, speaking with a heavy lisp. "I'm Nell Tu!"

"Dondochakka, don'tcha know!" the large hollow called out.

"And I'm Pesche!" announced the tall, skinny one. "Together we are..."

All three of them struck a pose as they each called out a different name. "The Great Desert Brothers!", "Bandit Neldonpe!", "The Three Brothers!"

There was a long pause, and then the three all whirled on each other. "I thought we talked about thith latht time!" Nell cried. "We were going to be Bandit Neldonpe!"

"I told you, I'll only accept The Great Desert Brothers!" Pesche said angrily.

Dondochakka somehow managed to make his giant hollow mask look sad. "I really want to have The Three Brothers in there, don'tcha know..."

Ichigo stared as the three of them continued bickering. Then he turned to Ishida and Chad for an explanation.

Ishida adjusted his glasses. "We ran into them playing tag when we first got here. We didn't realize they were all friends, or that she was an Arrancar, and we assumed she was being attacked."

Ichigo blinked at him; then examined the three more closely. "Understandable, I suppose... They're Arrancar? Really?"

"Well, Nell is, anyway."

Nell stopped arguing with her 'brothers' to frown at Ichigo and she nodded hard. "Of courthe I'm an Arrancar! Don't you thee my finely cracked mathk?" She pointed at a mask on the top of her head that was indeed cracked down the middle.

"I see..." Ichigo frowned at it. Slowly, something occurred to him. "_Hey, that's right... Hichigo, you can't be an Arrancar. Whenever you take control, the mask forms and it's always whole, not broken._"

Hichigo shrugged, smirking. '_I've been thinking about that, actually. Who knows if the same rules would apply for a Vaizard/Arrancar hybrid? We already know that I can do things that are odd for a hollow of any kind. Using Zangetsu in both Shikai and Bankai, for instance._'

Ichigo thought about this. "_True. When an Arrancar releases their zanpakutou, it usually disappears and they turn more hollow-ish. But Zangetsu is permanently released..._"

'_So,_ _I guess my 'released form' is just what I look like normally when I take control,_' Hichigo grinned. '_That's why the mask isn't broken when it forms. If I am an Arrancar, my released form is that of a Vaizard._'

"_That's... really weird._"

'_Nobody ever said that my existence made any sense._'

Ishida was waving a hand in Ichigo's face. "Oi! Kurosaki! You okay?"

Ichigo blinked, then nodded and started heading towards the big slug hollow thing. "I'm fine. Just thinking. We'd better get going. So, what's this thing?"

"Thith ith our pet, Bawabawa!" Nell explained, nimbly jumping up onto its back. Dondochakka and Pesche followed suit. "Thay 'Hi', Bawabawa!"

"Baaawaaa!" the hollow made a strange noise that was apparently the reason for the name it had.

"Good Bawabawa!" Nell said happily. "Come on, let'th go!"

Ishida, Chad, and Ichigo got up onto the hollow's back and Nell skipped over to sit in Ichigo's lap, much to his confusion. Then, more quickly than Ichigo would have thought possible for a hollow of this size, Bawabawa began to move forward towards Las Noches.

"What were you saying before, about Rukia and Renji?" Ishida asked Ichigo after a moment.

Ichigo frowned, trying to think of what Ishida was talking about, and then he remembered. "Oh. I just noticed that they weren't here yet."

"What do you mean, yet? Why would they be here at all?"

"That's what Sandal-hat told me," Ichigo explained. "He said that you two would be coming to Hueco Mundo shortly after I did, and that Rukia and Renji would come as soon as they could. And some unknown time after that, Soul Society's sending us backup."

Ishida looked somewhat agitated. "Soul Society? They're not sending backup. That's why Rukia and Renji aren't here _now_; they were forced to go back."

Ichigo smirked. "That's Soul Society's official stance, yeah. But they're going to start their 'main attack' on Hueco Mundo sometime while we're here. Not technically helping us, but helping us anyway. And Rukia and Renji are just going to come despite Soul Society's orders, like you guys did."

"Too many Shinigami are getting involved," Ishida muttered to himself. "My loophole for being here is closing..."

Nell was staring up at them in alarm. "Thinigami are gunna be attacking Hueco Mundo?" she asked in horror. "There are gunna be bad guyth here?"

Ichigo frowned down at her, having forgotten he had her sitting on him. "Um... Bad guys?" he asked.

"Yeah! Didn't you know?" Nell blinked at him with confusion. "There'th people out there whoth _job_ it ith to _kill_ hollowth like uth! That'th who the thinigami are!"

Ichigo raised an eyebrow at her; then he glanced up at Chad and Ishida. "Oh boy..."

Nell looked upset. "What? What'th going on?"

"Er... I guess I never introduced myself to you guys, did I?" Ichigo said, a little nervously. He wasn't sure what the small Arrancar's reaction to this was going to be, and she was still sitting on him...

"Not really," Nell admitted, curious now.

Ichigo hesitated. "I'm Kurosaki Ichigo. I'm a Shinigami representative."

"Itsugo, huh? That'th a cool name..." Nell thought about this for a moment, and then froze. Stiffly, she climbed off of Ichigo, turned around and frowned at him. "Wait. You're a what?"

"Shinigami representative," Ichigo said again slowly.

As Ichigo expected, Nell freaked out. "It'th a bad guy!" she wailed, pointing at Ichigo. "We'th all gunna die!"

Ichigo sighed. "Calm down; I'm not going to hurt you."

"But... but, you... but..."

"It's okay," Ichigo tried again. "I'm a nice Shinigami."

"But... but..."

Nell wasn't saying anything but gibberish at this point, so Ichigo sighed and changed the subject. "Ishida, what were you talking about before, about a loophole?" He paused in thought. "For that matter, where have you been for the past month? And when did you get your Quincy powers back again?"

Ishida didn't answer for a moment, so Chad spoke up quietly. "Urahara-san told me that he was training with his father... And that the conditions for that training were that he must not associate with Shinigami from now on."

"I was able to come to Hueco Mundo because there were no Shinigami involved," Ishida explained tersely. "It was just me and Sado-kun trying to rescue Inoue-san. Now, though..."

"Oh." Ichigo shrugged. "Well, you couldn't have known you were going to stumble upon me," he said off-handedly. "We're not working together or anything, we just happen to both be traveling the same direction."

Ishida smiled a little. "Of course. Isn't that how we always work, Kurosaki?"

With an overdramatic sigh, Ichigo smirked. "You're right. Oh, well."

Nell had been watching Ichigo suspiciously during this whole exchange, and finally she scampered up along Bawabawa's length to go sit by the other two hollows, whispering frantically to them.

Ichigo watched them for a while, worrying that they would have to fight the three of them, but slowly, they seemed to calm down and just accept the fact that he was there, watching him with curiosity.

He had a dark suspicion that the girl would be back soon to start asking him random questions. She seemed to be fascinated by him for some reason, and while this meant that they got to keep their ride, it was mildly annoying. He didn't have much experience dealing with kids...

'_Hey, at least the girl is proof to the others that Arrancar aren't necessarily horrible and evil,_' Hichigo pointed out smugly. '_Makes your life easier._'

Ichigo frowned. "_Hopefully... Of course, I'm still not sure that you _aren't_ horrible and evil. You still haven't told me what you're planning._"

'_And I'm not going to,_' Hichigo said again, grinning. Ichigo just sighed, having expected that, and returned his attention to what was going on around him.

The group rode on mostly in silence for a long time, watching as Las Noches slowly crept closer and closer.

* * *

... And then the chapter came to an abrupt end. XD

Okay, not really. I guess it just seems that way to me because I was planning on having another scene at the end here and I ultimately decided to save it for next chapter.

So, this chapter wasn't nearly as long as the last chapter. (Thank goodness. That was ridiculous!) But it was still really long... And it definitely had some weird stuff in it...

And now, here are some of my overly long, probably skippable play-by-play comments on it... (Seriously, who writes _author notes_ that are a thousand words long? Honestly...)

First off, the Hichigo is an Arrancar thing... At first, it sounds crazy, but once it's explained, it makes so much sense! o.o Weird...

It's not really applicable in the actual manga/anime anymore, though, since Ichigo defeated his inner hollow, so I'll never find out if we were right. u.u But still.

XD Ichigo's all worried about Hichigo's motives... But _we_ know what they are! Muahahaha...

Random note: Urahara brings up the idea that Ichigo's inner hollow would be trying to eat him if he weren't an Arrancar because of something Hirako said in canon as he sent Ichigo to his inner world. "Don't let it eat you. Eat it instead. If it eats you, it's over." ... Yeah, it's kind of an odd statement, considering that Hichigo never tries to _eat_ Ichigo, just kill him...

I'm not sure why I decided to make Lisa so mean to Ichigo, but I'm glad I did. XD It's funny.

I worry sometimes that my reasonings and how I say things don't make sense to others. But I've been told I need to worry less about these sorts of things, so eh.

On a related note... For the first time, I don't think anybody thinks too much this chapter. XD Rukia _emos_ too much, but that's totally in character. :D

Random note on pairings. I may have mentioned this before, but this fic will not have any actual pairings in it. This does not, however, stop me from doing what the actual series does and imply things everywhere. XD Renji's awkwardness is amusing.

... I take no credit for the awful, horrible, valley-girl bird Arrancar, and I'm sorry for any pain she caused. XD I was complaining to Katie that I hate creating original characters, especially if I'm just going to kill them right away... She suggested creating a character that I wouldn't mind killing. Like a really annoying preppy girl. Or a bird. (Birds hate me. And attack me. I don't know why.) And thus, this Arrancar was born. I hated her. She died. (And we're ignoring the fact that Japanese probably doesn't have a "valley-girl accent" equivalent...)

Quick note on battle scenes... Eh heh... Yeah, I really suck at writing battle scenes. There are two in this chapter, and they're both horrible. XD sorry.

This chapter is brought to you by Sand! It's everywhere. Get used to it. Ugh, I had to write the word 'sand' so many times, it drove me nuts. I hate using the same word over and over again; it's repetitive. But sand has no synonyms that I'm aware of, so I just had to become insane because of it.

I apologize for the sand hollow's incredibly cheesy entrance and its subsequent cheesy lines. XD I know it's horrible, but it strikes me as the kind of hollow that would do that...

I was hoping that the latest mangas would show the Vaizard fighting so that I could get a feel for what Lisa's sword abilities are. They didn't, so now I just have to hope that her zanpakutou isn't a water or electricity type of some sort, or my chapter will look silly. XD

Everyone I've asked has reassured me that Nell is perfectly understandable even with her lisp, but I worry about it anyway. I've always hated writing in accents of any kind (which is part of the reason I never bothered trying to give Hichigo any sort of casual-talk accent) so I came pretty close to just writing her text normally and adding in some note somewhere that mentioned she was talking with a lisp...

Nell's game of I spy... It's Hueco Mundo; there are a half million things there that are white besides the sand. The trees. The moon. Ishida's outfit. Chad's pants. Bawabawa's head. Nell, Dondochakka, or Peshe's masks. And yet she keeps picking the same thing over and over. Poor Ishida.

You know, Ishida and Chad have no idea what a Vaizard actually is, even in canon... Their reactions to this knowledge shall be fun to watch... Especially if Hichigo decides to give them a demonstration...

Yes, Nell does still find Ichigo fascinating. I mean, how many times have you been traveling along only to find some guy almost completely buried in the sand, and he joins your group of travelers once you unbury him? XD

Katie and I have pondered and theorized about just about every aspect of this Hichigo is an Arrancar thing that we could possibly ponder and theorize about, and the comments Ichigo makes about the mask is just part of the proof of that.

We love coming up with this sort of stuff, especially when it's something like this. And we like to think that other people think about our theories too, looking for counter theories to ours. As Shells once told me, "Quit worrying so much about it! Nobody thinks about this as hard as you do!" ... So, if you do find an inconsistency with our theory, or other plot points, please point it out! We'd love to think about it!

Let's see, what else can I ramble about...? Oh! (I've wanted to do this for a while now. Humor me.) Katie! What's our hit count for Feeling Hollow?

Katie: It's OVER NINE THOUSAND!!

Daricio: O.O Over nine thousand?! What?! (Is suddenly pelted by rotten tomatoes and things due to her terrible reference) Ack!

XD But, no, seriously, the hit count for Feeling Hollow _is_ that high, and you people are amazing. Thanks so much for reading and for your reviews! :D You make me feel happy.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter and are looking forward to the next one!


	4. Confrontations

Um, hi. Been a while.

=D I'm glad you people all have such patience with me. Honestly, I don't know how you put up with me. But the stats on Feeling Hollow continue to grow exponentially more ridiculous (Almost 600 people received an e-mail when I posted this chapter. O_O) and I thank all of you for that. Your support keeps this story going.

Special thanks to Obi-Quiet, both for betaing and for continuing to remind me that this story exists. =D

Note: I'm aware that it's spelled Visored. I don't care; I prefer the spelling Vaizard. =P

Since it's been such a long time (Almost a year and a half!) since my last update, I shall give a short summary: First chapter, Ichigo decided to work with his hollow. Second chapter, he trained a lot, had a few battles, and ended up getting kidnapped by the Vaizard. And last chapter, Urahara had several revelations to make, and the Vaizard sent Ichigo to Hueco Mundo, along with Lisa, who he got separated from when they were attacked by a sand hollow.

... On a random note, I was traveling to school at one point, and I came across a city in Idaho called Sand Hollow. It made me laugh. ... =| It was funnier at the time, I guess.

Anyway, so now Ichigo is traveling with Ishida, Chad, Nell, Dondochakka, and Pesche. =D

* * *

"I thpy thomething... white!"

Ichigo frowned down at the Arrancar child sitting in his lap, as several feet away, Ishida placed his head in one hand with a groan. "Not this again..." the white-clad teen muttered under his breath.

Nell looked up at Ichigo expectantly, waiting for him to answer. Ichigo just stared at her, wondering to himself how she'd ended up in his lap again.

They had been traveling across Hueco Mundo on the back of Nell's pet hollow, just beginning to get bored, when just a moment ago, she had suddenly gotten up from where she'd been talking with her two "brothers". Skipping over, she had then plopped herself down here, cheerfully stating the starting line for her game of "I Spy".

For whatever reason, she seemed to have forgiven him for being a Shinigami.

Finally, Ichigo shrugged and glanced around the area they were traveling through. "Um. The sand?" he guessed, remembering what he'd overheard earlier.

Nell's face lit up. "Yeah! That'th right! You're good at 'I thpy', Itsugo!"

Ishida rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything more. Chad looked vaguely amused, but as usual, also didn't speak.

"Okay! Let'th do another one! I thpy thomething..."

"Uh, Nell?" Ichigo quickly interrupted her, trying to keep from ending up in an endless loop of this. "I thought you didn't like me."

Nell gave him a hard, thoughtful look, her bottom lip jutting out slightly. "I think you'th lying to me, Itsugo. You'th not _really _a Thinigami."

Ichigo blinked at her. "Um... But, I _am_ a Shinigami," he said slowly.

"But you can't be!" she insisted. "You're too nithe to be a Thinigami! You'th gotta be a hollow like uth!"

Ichigo stared at her in confusion. Ishida turned away, shaking as he tried to hide his snickers, and even Chad smiled. Inside Ichigo's head, Hichigo snorted. '_That's the craziest logic I've ever heard!_'

Privately, Ichigo agreed. "Too nice?" he tried to ask seriously. "But, um... I thought hollows liked to kill people. That's not very nice."

Nell blinked at him. "I thought Thinigami liked to kill people," she informed him matter-of-factly. "That'th even not-nither."

Ichigo honestly couldn't come up with a response to that. Hichigo just laughed.

Cheerfully, Nell looked forward again. "Tho! I thpy thomething... white!"

Ichigo shook his head, trying to move her attention back to his question. "Wait, you still didn't... I mean... Nell, I'm not a hollow."

'_Not completely, anyway,_' Hichigo commented with amusement.

Ichigo ignored this as Nell frowned up at him. "You mutht be!" she insisted again.

"But, I have a zanpakutou," Ichigo reminded her, gesturing to Zangetsu's hilt.

"Tho?" Nell scowled indignantly at him. "Arrancar can uthe thanpaktoth too."

Hichigo smirked, reaching a hand up to tap his own version of Zangetsu. '_She's got you there._'

Ichigo ignored that, too. "Well, I don't have a mask," he mentioned to Nell.

'_I can change that._'

"_Don't you dare!_" Ichigo shot back quickly. Hichigo laughed at him again.

Nell stuck a finger in her mouth, pondering Ichigo's statement. With a shrug, she declared, "You mutht be hiding it thomewhere!" She grinned up at him. "What doeth your mathk look like, Itsugo?"

Ichigo had to fight off a sudden, strange urge to simply go with it and describe it for her. He wasn't sure how Chad and Ishida would take that, though, and anyway, he got the idea that humoring Nell on this one would just lead to complications later.

Awkwardly, he shook his head. "I just told you, I don't have one. I'm a Shinigami."

There was a long pause, and then Nell looked up at him with wide, tear-filled eyes. "Itsugo, do you not _want_ to be friendth with me?"

Ichigo blinked at her in surprise. "I didn't say that. What gave you that idea?"

"Then why ith you making up reathonth for me to thtay away?"

Ichigo frowned. "Making up reasons...? Nell, I'm not... I'll be your friend if you want to be friends."

Nell made a sniffling noise and wiped her nose messily on the back of one hand. "Really?"

"Really." Ichigo gave her a small smile, patting the top of her head.

Abruptly, Nell's tears were gone. "Yay! Okay, I thpy thomething... white!"

Ishida groaned. "Nell, don't you know any other games?"

"But you're both tho good at thith one!" Nell argued happily. "Come on! I thpy thomething white!"

Ichigo and Ishida both glanced at each other before looking back to the waiting green-haired girl. "The sand," they said simultaneously.

Nell squealed in delight.

* * *

"I thpy thomething... white!"

Ichigo didn't even bother opening his eyes. They'd been traveling for a while now, and he'd long since scooted Nell discreetly off of his lap so that he could lie down. She didn't seem to mind too much, merely sitting beside him and directing her game towards whoever would listen. He and Ishida had taken to trading off answering her.

Chad had somehow managed to stay out of the whole thing. With his size, it was impossible not to notice him, but with his quiet demeanor, it was easy to forget he was there. And so, he was spared from the endless game.

Dondochakka and Pesche hadn't even come over, instead remaining at their spots on their pet hollow's head, presumably steering somehow. They seemed perfectly content to let Nell remain with Ichigo and play her game. Ichigo supposed he couldn't blame them; brothers or not, he couldn't see how they managed to put up with this on a daily basis.

"The moon," Ichigo responded dully, realizing it was his turn again. She had randomly changed her focus about an hour before, throwing them both off for a while, but then she'd stuck with that just as stubbornly as she'd stuck to anything.

Nell laughed. "Okay! I thpy thomething... um... white!"

"The moon." Ishida had actually pulled out a needle and thread some time ago, and was currently mending non-existent problems with his outfit. Ichigo debated tossing his shihakusho top at him so that he could patch it up; it had a few holes in it from the sand hollow's attacks.

He ultimately decided not to. It would just be really weird, and besides, Ishida probably didn't have any black thread, anyway.

"I thpy thomething... white!"

'_How long is this going to go on?_' Ichigo finally opened his eyes again, sighing as he frowned at her. '_She's gotta get bored of this eventually, right?_'

Hichigo didn't respond; he didn't seem to even be bothering listening to the outside world any more. Ichigo almost wanted to drop down into his inner world to see what he'd found to entertain himself with, but he knew Nell would notice if he stopped playing.

With a sigh, Ichigo finally repeated the answer, "The moon."

"Yay! Okay, I thpy thome..." Nell stopped suddenly, her eyes widening at something in the distance. "Thomething red!" she chirped excitedly.

Ichigo blinked at her, and then followed her gaze. Abruptly, he began pulling himself to his feet. "Renji! Hey, Ishida, Chad! Renji and Rukia have caught up!"

That seemed to catch Hichigo's interest. "_This should be fun,_" he commented.

Rukia and Renji were still quite a ways back, running along at an even pace. Both were wearing what looked like long, tan capes over the top of their usual uniforms. They were far enough back that he could barely make out Renji's bright red hair.

"Hey, Nell! Tell Bawabawa to stop!" Ishida requested. "Let our friends catch up!"

Nell grinned. "More friendth? Yay! Bawabawa, thtop!"

With a long roar, the big hollow screeched to a halt, sending up clouds of dust and sand. Ichigo, Ishida, and Chad slid quickly down the hollow's side, running towards Rukia and Renji as soon as their feet hit sand.

"Who ith they?" Nell called after them in confusion, one hand going up to shade her eyes as she peered into the distance.

Dondochakka and Pesche scampered down to join Nell. "Yeah, who are we waiting for?" Pesche asked loudly.

"Don'tcha know!" Dondochakka added unnecessarily.

Ichigo didn't bother answering them. He doubted they'd like the idea of picking up more Shinigami.

Ichigo could tell the instant that Renji and Rukia spotted him amongst the group, because both of them stopped dead, staring at him. Ichigo grinned, waving at them. "Hey! Renji! Rukia!"

Rukia seemed to recover first, suddenly running towards him as fast as she could go. Renji took off after her a moment later.

About three seconds before Rukia reached him, Ichigo realized with some horror that the look on her face was not happy; instead, she looked downright murderous. And that was all the warning he had before he suddenly found himself face down in the sand, his nose bleeding profusely.

"Ichigo, you idiot!" Rukia screamed at him. "How _dare_ you make me worry about you like that, just to show up here _perfectly fine_!"

Ichigo pulled himself up off the ground painfully, trying to wipe blood from his face. "Ow! You call this perfectly fine?"

"It is, compared to what you will be in a second. My turn," Renji said, suddenly above him. Abruptly, Ichigo's face was in the sand again.

"Ow! You jerk, what was that for?" Ichigo exclaimed, struggling to get up again.

Rukia was glaring at him. "What happened to you, Ichigo?"

Renji frowned at him just as sternly. "Rukia said you'd been kidnapped by the Vaizard. What are you doing here?"

Ichigo scowled at them. "I _did_ get kidnapped. And then I got away. What are you hitting me for?"

Ishida, annoyingly enough, looked amused at Ichigo's pain, but he spoke up in Ichigo's defense. "Sado-kun and I found him buried in the sand a while back. He says that he got attacked by a hollow while trying to rescue Inoue."

Renji gave him a suspicious look. "And the Vaizard just let you go? I thought they were trying to help you with your hollow problem."

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "It's not a _problem_. And no, they didn't just let me go."

"Not a problem?" Renji scoffed. "Ichigo, you're a moron, refusing their help."

Ishida frowned at him. "What 'hollow problem', Kurosaki?"

Ichigo ignored Ishida's question, instead focusing on Renji. "I'm not a moron! What do you know about it anyway?"

Rukia stepped forward suddenly, placing a hand on Renji's shoulder to stop his angry response. Her expression was serious and contemplative as she looked Ichigo in the eyes. "Ichigo... You're right. We don't know anything about it. Because you won't _tell_ us. We _are_ glad to see you, but perhaps now would be a good time for you to explain your actions."

Ichigo scowled as they all fell silent, turning to him expectantly. Finally, he sighed, glancing around at each of them. "All right. I guess I owe you that much." He ran a hand through his hair distractedly. "I should probably start at the beginning, though, since I don't know if Chad and Ishida even know about Urahara's training."

Ishida adjusted his glasses, looking interested. "No, I didn't at least. What training?"

Chad nodded to confirm that he also hadn't known.

Ichigo frowned in thought, and then began. "Okay. Well, when Rukia was taken to Soul Society, back at the beginning of all this, Byakuya destroyed my Shinigami powers. Urahara gave me training to get my powers back. Obviously, it worked, but it had... other side effects that he conveniently didn't mention to me."

"Side effects?" Chad asked with some concern.

"Yeah." Ichigo nodded. "_Hey, help me out here?_" he requested Hichigo silently.

Hichigo mentally rolled his eyes, but apparently decided to go along with Ichigo's sudden idea. Waving his hand, he sent out a burst of reiatsu, forcibly materializing the hollow mask into existence in the outside world. It quickly formed across Ichigo's face, startling both him and everyone around him. Rukia and Renji both automatically grabbed the hilts of their swords, while Chad and Ishida dropped into defensive positions.

With a slight nervous laugh at their reactions, Ichigo pulled the now-solid mask off, smirking at them. As nonchalantly as he could manage, he handed it to Ishida. "_This_ side effect."

"This... this is...!" Ishida gasped, glancing from it up to Ichigo with some alarm.

"A hollow mask," Ichigo confirmed. "Urahara's training made me-"

"A hollow!" From directly beside Ichigo, Nell suddenly squealed. "You really ith a hollow, Itsugo! I knew it!" With that, she leapt at him, tackling him to the ground in a hug. "I'th tho happy!"

Ichigo struggled to get her off. "Nell! Wait, no, I'm not-"

Pesche stood by him, patting his back as hard as he could. "We knew you were a good person!" he cried dramatically.

"We can be friends, Don'tcha know!" Dondochakka added happily. Ichigo looked up in horror just in time to get buried by a tackle/hug from the large Arrancar.

"AAUGH!"

With some alarm, Renji suddenly stepped forward, shoving hard on Dondochakka's side in an attempt to move him. "Hey, get off of him, ya big oaf! Who the heck are you guys, anyway?"

Nell grinned at him from her perch on Dondochakka's shoulders. "We'th Itsugo's brotherth!" she exclaimed with delight.

"No, you're not!" Ichigo protested from underneath the mass of Arrancar. "Get off!"

"And what a fine mask you have, too!" Pesche suddenly stole Ichigo's mask from Ishida's grasp, knocking him over. "I like the red! Very stylish!"

"Hey!" Ishida protested from the ground.

"Whoops, sorry, didn't see you there, Sado," Pesche apologized.

Ishida grit his teeth. "I'm Ishida Uryuu!" he corrected tightly. "_He_'s Sado."

"Same thing," Pesche assured him. Then he turned back towards Ichigo, waving the mask in his general direction. "So, how did you make it come off? That's a bit strange..."

"Lemme thee it!" Nell called to Pesche. "The mathk, lemme thee it!"

"You got it!"

Ichigo groaned as Pesche tossed the mask into the air.

Before Nell could get it, though, Chad caught it, looming rather imposingly over them all. "Guys... I would like to hear the rest of Ichigo's story. Dondochakka, please get off of him."

Much subdued, the three backed off. Ichigo pulled himself slowly up to a sitting position, trying in vain to brush sand from his uniform, and Chad silently handed him back his mask.

A little uneasily, Ichigo took it, frowning down at it. "Er, right. So."

Renji stopped him. "Ichigo, first off, who _are_ these three?" He gestured vaguely towards Pesche, Dondochakka, and Nell.

Ichigo shrugged helplessly. "Don't ask me. They weren't my fault."

"I'm Nell Tu!" Nell introduced herself happily.

"Dondochakka, Don'tcha know!"

"And I'm Pesche!" The three of them scrambled to arrange themselves in exactly the same flashy pose that they had when introducing themselves to Ichigo. "And together we are..."

"Insane," Ishida inputted, interrupting them. "They're a bunch of Arrancar that we accidently ran into. They're giving us a ride. Kurosaki, _how_ exactly do you have a hollow mask?"

Ichigo sighed, ignoring Nell, Dondochakka, and Pesche's loud protests to Ishida's commentary. "I'm not sure, exactly. Long story short, though: because of Urahara's training, I've got kind of a split personality. Half Shinigami," he tugged lightly on his Shinigami uniform, "and half Hollow," he held up the mask slightly.

"Tho, you'th both a good guy _and_ a bad guy?" Nell ventured.

Ichigo couldn't help but smirk at that, knowing her definitions of good guy and bad guy were completely opposite of everyone else's. "Well, sort of. I'm a Shinigami, and in my head, there's... another me that's a hollow."

"Is that why the Vaizard are interested in you?" Chad wondered.

An annoyed scowl appeared on Ichigo's face just from thinking about the stupid Vaizard. "Sort of," he repeated. "They're also Shinigami/hollow hybrids. They kidnapped me because they think I don't know what I'm doing, just because I chose to deal with it differently than they did."

Ishida started to respond to this, but a loud voice from behind them interrupted him.

"We _know_ you don't know what you're doing, because you've proven it, Ichigo!" Ichigo whipped his head around to see Yadomaru Lisa stalking towards them, glaring at him in annoyance.

Ichigo stared at her in dismay. "_Of all the times for her to show up!_"

Hichigo evidentially felt the same way. '_I had hoped she'd gotten eaten by that sand hollow,_' he remarked distastefully.

"I lose you for _one second_," she ranted as she approached, "and you somehow manage to find the exact people we warned you _not_ to—huh?"

Lisa came to a dead stop as Rukia leapt suddenly between her and Ichigo, her sword drawn and her expression dangerous. "You are not taking him away from us again, Vaizard," she hissed. "Not unless you go through me first."

A moment later, Renji joined her, also drawing his sword. Chad followed right behind him, and then so did Nell, holding her fists up stubbornly and glaring at Lisa. When Dondochakka and Pesche realized what the green-haired girl had done, they scrambled to join her as well.

Ishida remained where he'd originally been standing, trying to look as though he wasn't about to have anything to do with this, but Ichigo noticed him fingering his Quincy cross, ready to wield it at a moment's notice.

As Ichigo gazed at them, all gathered protectively around him, he couldn't help but feel touched by the gesture. "Guys..."

Renji turned and shot him a brief glare. "Don't think you're off the hook, Ichigo. I still think you're a moron for not accepting help. I just happen to agree with Rukia that you should get your own choice in the matter."

He turned back to Lisa as Ichigo sputtered, trying to come up with a decent response to this. Scowling at her, Renji stated bluntly, "If Ichigo wants to be an idiot and deal with his inner hollow on his own, you Vaizard should let him! You can't force him to quit being stupid."

Lisa examined the group, a curious, calculating expression on her face. Then, she deliberately looked past them all to where Ichigo still sat on the ground, folding her arms and sighing. "Unfortunately, your friend's right. I don't think _any_thing can cure your horrible case of stupidity. Have you even bothered explaining to them the danger you've put _them_ in by being here?"

Ichigo grit his teeth, remembering far too clearly exactly why he'd hated being around Lisa in the first place. "I was _getting_ to that. One thing about you Vaizard, you've got a nasty habit of interrupting me right when I'm about to explain!"

With a scoff, Lisa rolled her eyes. "Fine, then _I'll_ explain." She returned her attention to the assembled group, raising her voice as if making an announcement. "Ichigo, here, is a ticking time bomb. If his inner hollow chooses to fight him seriously, his body will fully become a hollow, run purely by instinct, and he will not hesitate to attack you."

"So you say," Ichigo retorted. "Urahara said he didn't even know if the same thing applied to me."

Lisa gave him a level look. "I'd rather not take chances," she informed him. "At any rate, _that_ is why we wanted Ichigo to be away from all of you. If, even knowing this, you don't want to be away from him, then so be it. Don't say I didn't warn you."

Rukia frowned at her. "You didn't exactly give us that option when you kidnapped him earlier."

"Earlier, he was located in the middle of Karakura town," Lisa responded. "You were watching him as closely as we were; you know the condition he was in. Would you rather we'd left him there to attack the town's residents?"

Ichigo scowled at that. "The condition I was in? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, I apologize for assuming that a hollow forcibly taking control of your body was a _bad_ thing," Lisa replied sarcastically. "Even knowing about your little 'agreement', my opinion on _that_ is still the same."

"What little agreement?" Rukia asked suspiciously.

Lisa frowned at her. "The one he made with his hollow, of course. Or did he..." at Rukia's surprised look, Lisa's eyes narrowed. "Ichigo, you didn't tell them about _that_ either?"

Ichigo's teeth clenched again. "I was _getting_ to it!" he repeated angrily. "If you'd quit interrupting me!"

Lisa made a low noise of irritation, and then abruptly sat down on the sand. "All right. You lot better make yourselves comfortable, then. You can sheathe your swords any time now, by the way." She folded her arms. "Ichigo, start explaining."

Still watching Lisa suspiciously, Rukia slowly sheathed her zanpakutou. Then she turned to Ichigo, silently awaiting his explanation for the third time. She didn't sit, and she kept her hand on her sword hilt; clear signs that she didn't trust Lisa further than she could throw her, and also that she was losing her patience.

When she moved, the others backed down as well. Chad went to sit near Ichigo, offering his usual silent support. Renji sheathed his sword, but like Rukia, he remained standing. Ichigo noted that he also kept one hand on his sword hilt.

Nell, of course, went to go sit in Ichigo's lap, looking cheerfully up at him. Dondochakka and Pesche seemed to have really gotten into the idea from before of 'guarding' Ichigo, because they took up overdramatic, flashy, defensive stances on either side of him. Ichigo sighed and ignored their theatrics.

Ishida, for his part, remained where he'd been before. He was still trying to appear as though this had no effect on him whatsoever, but his expression, even pointed decidedly away from everyone else, gave away both his interest and his concern.

With a deep breath, Ichigo finally began. "Okay, so... I started talking to my inner hollow at one point, about a month ago, and... discovered that we have a lot in common, for obvious reasons."

Rukia's eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about?"

Ichigo hesitated, trying to be careful about how he worded this. The last thing he wanted was for his friends to reject the idea entirely just because he couldn't explain it properly. "Well, you see..."

Mentally, Hichigo snorted. '_Quit dancing around it. Just tell them already. Either they'll accept it, or they won't. Delaying isn't getting you anything._'

"_Shut up,_" Ichigo snapped automatically. But he knew Hichigo had a point.

He looked back up at Rukia, his face setting into a stubborn expression. "I made a deal with my inner hollow."

"I gathered that much," Rukia said dryly. "What kind of deal?"

"He agreed to train me, to help me become stronger. We're working together," Ichigo explained slowly.

Ishida turned to him suddenly in surprise. "Agreed to train you.... in exchange for what? What does he get out of this deal?"

"Uh..." Ichigo faltered at that. "He, well..."

Lisa scoffed. "And that's the main reason why Ichigo's a moron," she spoke up. "He never bothered asking questions like that. No, that's the extent of their deal. The hollow trains him, supposedly so that when it fights him for control, they can both be at peak strength."

Ichigo scowled. "What do you mean, supposedly? It's true; we both just want it to be a fair fight."

"Hollows don't _work_ like that," Lisa shot back at him, before turning back to the others. "It has to have some ulterior motive-"

"So you say!"

"-but there's really no way to figure out what that motive is," she finished, ignoring Ichigo's outburst.

Ichigo's scowl deepened. "He isn't like that. I trust him."

'_For some reason,_' Hichigo snorted.

Ichigo's comment caused a strange, muffled noise to come from Rukia, and Ichigo glanced up at her in concern. She was watching him with an expression of shock, worry, and fear, looking as though she was ready to start running. "Trust?" she finally got out. "But... how...?"

Ichigo folded his arms stubbornly. "Look, I've been working with him for the past month. I can't really explain it, and you probably won't listen to me even if I could, but he can be trusted."

Rukia continued gaping at him, as if unsure what to say to that.

Chad looked mildly concerned, leaning forward slightly to look Ichigo in the face. "Ichigo... why didn't you tell us before?"

Ichigo groaned a little, running a hand through his hair. "Because it's a pain trying to explain it, and I knew you wouldn't believe me! I-"

"Ichigo, all this time..." Rukia seemed to finally manage to make herself speak. "This whole month, I've been so worried about you. Worried that I was about to lose my friend to the insanity of a hollow. And then I find out that my worrying was all for nothing..."

With a sigh, Ichigo looked away. "I know. I'm sorr-"

"Not yet, you're not." Renji was suddenly stalking towards Ichigo, making shooing motions at Nell. "Kid, get off of him. I'm going to pummel him."

Nell spread her arms out as if to shield Ichigo with her own body, looking stubborn. "Be nithe to Itsugo! Ithn't he your friend?"

Renji scowled at Ichigo. "Well, I thought so. But a real friend doesn't keep secrets like this."

Ichigo felt a pang of guilt and he gently moved Nell aside. She looked mildly surprised by this, but Ichigo kept his attention on Renji. "I know. I just thought..."

"No, you didn't think at all!" Renji retorted. He gave Ichigo a level look. "You figured that if we knew you wanted to try being allies with a hollow, that we would abandon you. Didn't you?"

Ichigo shrugged helplessly. "Well, not exactly, but..."

Renji grabbed the front of Ichigo's shihakusho, pulling him closer so that he could yell in his face. "You're an idiot for thinking that something like this would separate us. I thought our friendship was deeper than that. Aren't we Nakama?"

Ichigo stared at him in surprise for a long moment. Then his gaze was drawn to Chad as his friend gave him a thumbs-up. A guilty, sheepish smile grew across Ichigo's face. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm sorry."

"I can't..." Rukia's voice drew their attention again, and Renji's grip on Ichigo loosened as they both looked over. Much to Ichigo's concern, she still looked almost afraid of him. "Ichigo, you... I just can't understand it. Those times when your hollow took over... you _let_ it?"

Ichigo hesitated a moment, but he nodded. "Yeah. I did."

"But why?" She frowned at him. "After all the damage it was doing...? If you hadn't gotten control back after that last fight, it would have killed me."

Ichigo quickly shook his head. "No, he wouldn't have." He sighed. "Look, he wasn't trying to threaten you. He's not very tactful, I'll admit, but he just wanted you to stop trying to get up. You were hurt."

As Rukia looked at him searchingly, Ichigo could almost see her running the event back through her mind, trying to match his words to the images. "But, you..."

Ichigo scowled. "Look, you want to hear it from him?"

That made everyone tense in anticipation, including Lisa. Even Hichigo protested. '_Are you kidding? If I go out there right now, they'll all jump us._'

"_They won't,_" Ichigo returned stubbornly. "_I told them you were a friend, didn't I?_"

Hichigo rolled his eyes, but Ichigo couldn't make out his muttered response.

It was just as well; Rukia was answering his question. "I'd rather not," she said dryly, still looking wary.

Ichigo sighed. "Look, he's not what you'd think. He's..." a thought came to him suddenly, "Hey, you should know. You've met him before."

Rukia gave him a look of disbelief. "Didn't I just say that? It tried to-"

He interrupted her, shaking his head. "No, not when I was fighting Grimmjow. I meant before that, when Urahara used that stupid locket."

Her eyes widened marginally as she took that in. Finally, she muttered, "Impossible. I only saw your zanpakutou there, not..." She trailed off, comprehension dawning on her face. "No, that's impossible."

Ichigo nodded solemnly, getting that she understood what he was talking about now. "There, you see? He's _not _what you'd expect." With some embarrassment, he rubbed the back of his neck. "But I guess now you know why he was laughing at you."

Rukia's eyes narrowed at him. "You said it was an illusion!"

"_You_ said that," Ichigo corrected, looking away. "I just didn't want to explain."

"But that was no hollow!" Rukia protested. "He... It was just another you!"

Ichigo was about to respond, when abruptly, Renji interrupted, speaking loudly to Ishida. "Well, I'm lost!" he announced. "How about you?"

Ishida merely nodded, one eyebrow raised at Ichigo.

"I haven't known what you've all been talking about this entire time!" Pesche confided enthusiastically in agreement.

"We're totally in the dark, Don'tcha know!" Dondochakka also agreed.

Renji rolled his eyes. "I wasn't talking to you two morons!"

Pesche leapt over to him and threw an arm around his shoulders. "You wound me!" he cried, clutching his chest dramatically.

"Yeah, I _will_ if you don't get off," Renji growled, starting to draw his sword again. Pesche skedaddled.

Lisa brought the conversation back to the original point. "What are you two talking about, exactly?"

Rukia's cheeks went slightly pink. "About a week ago," she explained tightly, "I was tricked into using a device that forced me inside Ichigo's inner world temporarily."

Surprise crossed Lisa's face for a split second, followed immediately by understanding. "Let me guess: Urahara Kisuke?"

Rukia nodded slowly, looking suspicious. "You know him?"

Lisa sighed. "Unfortunately. Please, continue."

For a moment, she didn't answer, but then apparently decided to ask later, shaking her head as she went back to her narrative. "While I was in there, I came across Ichigo training, fighting against what he _told_ me was an illusion that his zanpakutou had created." She glared at Ichigo as she said this.

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "You came up with it!" he said again. "I just agreed with you!" He turned to the others. "I was in the middle of training with my inner hollow. He was trying to get me used to fighting using a short range Getsuga Tenshou."

Rukia protested, "But that wasn't a hollow! It was just you, except white! And with sunglasses!"

"Sunglasses?" Renji asked in slight amusement. "Your inner hollow wears sunglasses?"

Ichigo sighed, smacking his forehead. "Not usually. He was wearing them to cover his eyes, so that Rukia wouldn't see them. In my mental world, his eyes are the only way you can really tell he's a hollow at all."

"But he's a Shinigami!" Rukia continued her protest. "He was wearing white, but it was a Shinigami uniform! He had a zanpakutou!"

Lisa made a noise of understanding. "Aaah. This is where Urahara's Arrancar theory came from. I had wondered how he could be so sure."

Ishida finally turned to face them all directly, surprise on his face. "Arrancar theory? What Arrancar theory?"

Renji, Rukia, and Chad looked equally lost, and Ichigo sighed again, shrugging helplessly. "Urahara thinks that something weird happened when I first became a shinigami/hollow hybrid that turned my inner hollow into a natural Arrancar."

They were all silent at that, and then Ishida's frown deepened. "So, not only are you part Shinigami, part hollow, but you're actually part Shinigami, part... Shinigami/hollow?"

Ichigo shrugged again. "Apparently. According to Urahara."

Lisa was about to say something, but Nell interrupted, stars in her eyes. "That'th tho cool, Itsugo! Tho we're actually _both_ Arrancar!"

Ichigo hesitated, and then shook his head. "Well, technically, I'm not. I'm just a Shinigami. Hichigo's the Arrancar."

Renji snorted. "Hichigo?"

"Oh, don't even start!" Ichigo shot at him, ignoring Hichigo's snickers as well. "I needed _some_thing to call him!"

"And you couldn't come up with anything more original?" Renji laughed.

Nell was quietly trying the name out to herself, her lisp slurring it. "Itsugo... and Hitsugo?" She blinked up at him. "That'th hard! They'th too clothe together! You can't tell if I'm thaying Itsugo or Hitsugo!"

"A fine point!" Pesche agreed. "Hichigo just won't do if Nell-sama cannot pronounce it!"

"Yeah, Don'tcha know!" Dondochakka said as well. "What name should we give our new brother?"

Pesche snapped his fingers. "I know! The short Shinigami said that the inside Ichigo was white! How about Shiro?"

"That'th even harder!" Nell pointed out. "It hath an eth in it!"

"How about just 'Other Ichigo', Don'tcha know?" Dondochakka suggested.

Pesche hopped up and down in excitement. "Oh! Or spell Ichigo backwards! Ogihci!"

Dondochakka frowned at him. "Og-i-what?" he whined. "I don't even know what you just said, Don'tcha know!"

"Ogihci! It's Ogihci!" Pesche repeated impatiently. Then his face brightened. "Oh! Or, just flip the beginning and the end! Then it'll be, 'Go, Ichi!' and we'll be cheering for him every time we say his name!"

Ichigo decided that was quite enough. "Guys, he doesn't need more names!" he exclaimed irritably. "Besides, those are all even lamer than the one I use!"

'_I don't know,_' Hichigo snickered. '_You don't get much lamer than Hichigo. I kind of like 'Go, Ichi'._'

"_Shut up,_" Ichigo grumbled.

'_Or Shiro. That sounds almost cool._'

"It's just Hichigo, okay?" Ichigo snapped to everyone. "Deal with it."

Nell came over and gently picked up one of Ichigo's hands, looking him in the eyes very seriously. "Itsugo? Can we'th talk to Hitsugo? I wanna meet him."

Ichigo hesitated, glancing around at his friends, who were all watching him with various degrees of apprehension on their faces. Slowly, he answered Nell, "Maybe later, okay?"

She looked a little disappointed, but she nodded. "Okay!" she returned brightly.

After a moment of silence, Lisa cleared her throat. "At any rate, the fact that Ichigo's inner hollow is an Arrancar means that he will probably have a harder time gaining and keeping control over it," she said, bringing the conversation, once again, back to its original topic. She raised an eyebrow at Ichigo. "Assuming, of course, that he _wants_ control over it."

Ichigo shook his head. "I couldn't tell you exactly what _he_ wants," he admitted. "But to be honest, I've just... gotten used to working with him. It just makes more sense to help each other than it does to fight over everything."

He almost expected Hichigo to comment on this, but his other half remained thoughtfully silent.

Lisa sighed. "I suppose nothing I can say will change your opinion." She got to her feet, brushing sand from her skirt and legs. "Fine. In that case, hanging around here isn't getting us any closer to rescuing your friend. We should get going."

Nodding, Ichigo also got up. "Yeah, you have a point."

"Everyone, keep an eye on Ichigo," Lisa warned as she turned towards Las Noches. "He is still dangerous."

The others murmured their acknowledgement of her words, but as they all started towards Nell's pet hollow again, Ichigo got the feeling that they were all far more on his side than they were on hers.

"_That went... better than I expected,_" he admitted to Hichigo.

Hichigo just laughed. '_We'll just see what happens later..._'

Ichigo decided to ignore how ominous that statement sounded.

* * *

... I feel like, especially considering the long wait for this chapter to get out, nothing really happened in this chapter. ... Oh well. At least it's a chapter, right? ... right?

So, I currently have an idea for about half a scene more for this story, and after that, I'm kind of at a loss for where to take it next. So the next update may not be for a while.

Then again, we see how long it takes me just to update even when I do have ideas, so... Yeah, sorry about that.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter! Hope you enjoy my other stories, too!

Speaking of, for those of you who didn't know, I actually put up a prequel to Feeling Hollow called Hollow Feelings since the last time I updated this. So if you haven't seen it yet, go check it out. It's pretty awesome.

Also, I've been working on a story called Day Before Tomorrow that should prove to be interesting, so go check that out, too. =D

Till next time,

--Daricio


	5. Riddles

"Yadomaru-san... was it?"

Lisa looked up boredly at the Quincy's sudden inquiry. They'd been traveling along in an awkward silence (excluding Nell's chipper babbling) for several minutes now, and his question was unexpected. After studying him for a moment, she nodded. "Yadomaru Lisa," she introduced herself calmly.

The white-clad teen didn't bother wasting time with small talk before continuing bluntly. "If I understand this correctly, you greatly dislike Ichigo's inner hollow mostly because, being a hollow, he is inherently untrustworthy." Lisa started to reply to this, but Ishida quickly added, "Not that I disagree, mind you. But I am curious... You haven't raised a single complaint about Nell or her group the entire time we've been traveling. You know that they are Arrancar. Aren't their actions somewhat suspicious as well?"

Lisa sighed, reaching up distractedly to brush her bangs out of her face. "Not at all," she said, her tone still practically screaming boredom. "Not all hollows are particularly strong. Or intelligent. These three are obviously neither."

Pesche leapt to his feet at that, gripping his chest. "Augh! Your insightful, piercing comment wounds my heart!" he cried dramatically.

Ishida glared at him. "You're a hollow. You don't _have_ a heart."

With a squeal, Pesche fell back into Dondochakka's arms in a dead faint. Nell fanned him worriedly. "Oh no! I'll thave you, Pesche!" she wailed.

"My point," Lisa said dryly. "The weak flock to any strong beings that don't outright kill them, hoping for guidance and protection; even hollows. No matter where you happened to find these three, the fact that they continue to hang around when you turned out to be accepting of them is not very surprising."

Before anyone could make further comments, she jerked a thumb in Ichigo's direction. "His inner hollow, however, is neither weak nor stupid. It really has no reason to continue aiding him, and therefore its actions cannot be predicted. This, more than the fact that it's a hollow, is why I don't trust it."

Ichigo frowned, not liking this answer. "Even though I'm only as strong as I am because of his help? What if the two of us working together are stronger than either of us alone?"

With a short glance at him, Lisa sighed. "From my own experience, I would say that something like that is impossible. In this instance..." She shrugged. "I shall continue to assume it is an enemy until proven otherwise. I'm less likely to get stabbed in the back that way."

Ichigo started to protest this, but Ishida interrupted with a nod. "I suppose that's all we can expect of you," he said dryly.

From the look on her face, Lisa obviously caught Ishida's implied insult, but she didn't acknowledge it, instead turning her head to watch as they approached Las Noches, the great building looming ever closer.

The group fell once more into an unsteady, nervous silence.

All too soon, that silence was broken once more, the tiny, teal-haired Arrancar placing her hands on her hips and looking around with a calculating look. "I thpy thomething..." she began seriously.

Ichigo and Ishida both groaned. "Nell, we're almost there. Could we please not play that game?" Ichigo asked exasperatedly.

Nell shook her head hard. "It only lookth like we'th almotht there!" she insisted. "We'th _been_ almotht there for forever already!" She waved both hands in the air above her head to emphasize her point.

To Ichigo's surprise, Renji suddenly nodded. "That is true. And besides, playing a short game while we wait might get our minds off of..." he gestured vaguely at Ichigo. "Reduce the tension, you know?" Ichigo glared at him, silently willing for the red-head to be struck down by any gods who happened to be listening. Nothing happened. Renji just glared back. "What? You got a problem with it?"

Nell had brightened considerably, drawing their attention again. "Yay! Pineapple agreeth with me! Who elthe ith playing?"

A vein on Renji's forehead twitched. "Hey, who are you calling—?"

"I'll play," Rukia said calmly, not looking at any of them. She'd been nearly silent since they'd started moving once more, and her sudden quiet involvement surprised Ichigo again.

Chad wisely stayed quiet.

"Great!" Pesche was on his feet once more, pounding one hand into the other triumphantly. "'Nell-sama's ultimate game of I spy' shall commence!"

Ichigo and Ishida simultaneously groaned. Renji frowned at them. "What's wrong with you people? It's just a game."

"It's just a game that we've been playing for the past _three hours_," Ishida seethed tightly. "Maybe longer."

Nell grinned brilliantly at him. "That'th how I know how good you ith at it!"

Lisa raised an eyebrow at the small child. "It seems to me," she said patiently, "that they don't actually like the game 'I spy'. Perhaps a different game?"

Nell pouted at her, highly offended. "It theemth to me," she repeated, imitating Lisa's tone, "that they don't actually like _you_. We'th playing I thpy!"

The Vaizard didn't look even remotely bothered by the girl's comment, instead turning to Ichigo. "Would _you_ prefer a different game, Ichigo?"

Suddenly, Nell's attention was on the orange-haired teen, her eyes wide and wondering.

"Of course I-" Ichigo's automatic reaction was brought up short by tears beginning to form in the girl's eyes. Unsurely, he coughed, and then folded his arms, looking away. "Er, I mean... Well, it doesn't bother me if you want to play, I suppose."

"Pathetic," Lisa muttered to herself. Ichigo scowled as Hichigo offered his agreement with a snicker. Lisa turned back to Nell. "You see, he still wants to play with you, don't worry. But why don't we try a different game? Riddles, perhaps."

Nell blinked up at her. "Riddleth?" she asked curiously. "What'th that?"

Lisa shrugged. "Just a suggestion. First thing that came to my mind." She brushed her off. "Probably wouldn't interest you."

"How do you play?" Nell demanded, looking determined.

Ishida rolled his eyes. "That's obvious. One person tells a riddle, and everyone else guesses at the answer."

Lisa nodded. "Whoever guesses it gets to tell the next riddle. I don't suppose you'd want to play. That is more of a grown-up game, after all."

That got Nell's attention. "I wanna play!" she insisted. "I'th good at riddleth, too!"

The black-haired Vaizard couldn't help the smirk that appeared on her face. "If you really want to. Would you like to go first?"

Nell nodded hard, her face scrunching up as she thought. Pesche and Dondochakka cheered for her from behind. "You can do it, Nell-sama!" Pesche encouraged. "Come up with a good one!"

"You can do it, Don'tcha know!" Dondochakka added.

Ichigo frowned, wondering if Nell even knew what a riddle was in the first place. Hichigo watched in vague interest. '_Riddles, huh? Might be interesting..._'

For a long moment, everyone was silent (except for Dondochakka and Pesche), until finally, Nell grinned at them all.

"What'th black an' white an' red all over?" she asked triumphantly.

Ishida sighed. "Leave it to her to pick a joke with multiple possible answers," he muttered to himself. "A newspaper?"

Nell gave him a blank look. "What'th a newthpaper?"

The Quincy could only stare at her. Nell just stared back.

Ichigo had to hide a smirk. Of course the child Arrancar wouldn't know what a newspaper was, unless she'd been living in the human world. But then, that would eliminate most of the usual answers to that riddle.

Sure enough, when Rukia guessed next, "A sunburned zebra?" Nell's questioning look only turned to her, the girl obviously even more confused.

"What'th a theebra?"

Rukia frowned. "Guess not, then."

They all thought for a while longer, trying to think of something that Nell would actually know about.

Finally, Lisa ventured, "The big hollow there?" She gestured at Dondochakka, and Ichigo realized that she'd never gotten the names of the three Arrancar. "He has yellow on him, too, but the other colors are there."

Nell contemplated this. "Hmm. Good gueth, but nope!"

Dondochakka burst into tears, obviously upset that it wasn't him. Nell quickly hurried to him with a shout. "Don't worry, Dondochakka! I thtill love you!"

"R-really, Don'tcha know?" The large Arrancar sobbed. The others all ignored the drama as they thought about this some more.

Lisa's guess seemed to have triggered an idea for Renji, of all people, and he suddenly spoke up, "One of Aizen's Arrancar... with a bloody nose?"

Ichigo snorted in laughter, but Nell surprised them all by shouting "YETH!" and then breaking down giggling. Pesche cheered enthusiastically.

Renji blinked, and then grinned. "Great! I got it right!" he bragged. "So, I'm telling the next one, right?"

"Just tell it," Rukia prodded, rolling her eyes, "instead of sitting around acting smug about a random guess."

"Random?" Renji scoffed. "You doubt my intellect?"

Ichigo couldn't resist answering, "All the time."

"Why you..."

Ishida sighed, adjusting his glasses with some annoyance. "Just tell your riddle, Abarai-san."

With a glare at Ichigo, Renji composed himself, clearing his throat. "Right, right... Um..." He grinned again. "What's green and red and goes round and round and round?"

Immediately, Ichigo rolled his eyes. He'd heard that one before, and though it was a little surprising that Renji knew it, it wasn't surprising at all that he'd pass it along if he did. "It's a frog in a blender."

Renji visibly slumped, continuing his glare at Ichigo. "Hey, how'd you guess so fast?"

"Everyone at school knows that one," Ichigo returned with a smirk. "There's a bunch of stupid losers who keep telling it over and over."

"Hey, are you implying something?" Renji shot back.

Ichigo laughed. "So what if I am!" he taunted.

"Would you two knock it off?" Rukia smacked Renji on the back of the head, glaring at Ichigo as though it was his fault that he was sitting outside of smacking range. Renji pouted, grumbling to himself. Rukia just ignored him and said, "I don't suppose you're any better at telling riddles?" she challenged Ichigo.

That stopped Ichigo dead. "Uh..." Great. He already knew he sucked at riddles; he had just been lucky that he knew Renji's joke already. But he couldn't just tell yet another random joke like that, or that'd make both Renji and Rukia right, and that was unacceptable.

With a scowl, Ichigo thought hard. "_Hey, little help?_" he requested finally. His hollow was always making weird metaphors for everything; he'd probably be good with riddles.

Hichigo just laughed at him. '_Not a chance, moron._'

Ichigo sighed. For just a game, he'd expected something like that.

Finally, he came up with something halfway decent, something he vaguely remembered hearing before. "Okay... I've got one." He took a deep breath and then spoke slowly, trying to make sure he was saying it right. "I connect the heavens to the earth. Without me, there is no life, but too much of me brings death. What am I?"

'_Not too shabby,_' Hichigo said with a snicker, having seen the answer already in Ichigo's thoughts. '_Not a great one, but it'll work. Bet you Glasses figures it out first._'

Ichigo didn't particularly care; he was just feeling smug that his riddle appeared to have stumped the others, at least longer than Renji's joke had.

"Connect the heavens..." Rukia repeated to herself in a mumble. "Lightning? No; brings life...?"

Lisa smiled suddenly, looking up at him. "Rain. You are rain."

Ishida adjusted his glasses. "I was about to guess that."

Hichigo was clearly disappointed. '_What little faith I once had in that Quincy is now shattered. Jerk made me lose._'

Ichigo just nodded at Lisa, smirking. "Yeah, that's it. Your riddle, then."

She inclined her head slightly to indicate that she'd heard, and then took some time to contemplate. Finally, she turned to face them. "I am something made of nothing. If you put me in a pocket, a barrel, or a bag, it becomes lighter. If you put me in a ship, it becomes heavier. What am I?"

This time, Ishida almost immediately smirked. "Ah. You're a hole."

Nell pouted at him. "No fair, Ithida-than! Too fatht! I didn't hear it and you anthered it! You coulda given uth a chanth!"

Ishida looked slightly flustered. "Um, sorry. That's just how the game works."

"Well, go thlower next time!" Nell commanded.

Clearing his throat awkwardly, Ishida shook his head. "Er, right. So, my riddle, then." Looking contemplative, he adjusted his glasses. "I am used by young and old, experienced and beginner, for work and for play. One side destroys, while the other creates. What am I?"

For a long moment, everyone merely stared at him, perplexed.

Ichigo gave a little sigh, leaning back a bit as he gave up. Really, he was terrible with riddles, and Ishida was apparently master at coming up with them.

Hichigo scoffed at him. '_You give up too fast._'

Ichigo shrugged. "_It's just a game. One I don't like. I get enough of this from you._"

'_Che. Pathetic._'

Ichigo glanced around at everyone else, focusing his attention instead on guessing who would answer first. Rukia was mumbling to herself, staring down at her feet while tapping a finger lightly against her mouth. Renji also seemed to have given up, watching everyone else one by one. When he spotted Ichigo doing the same thing, he gave him a grimace.

Lisa had a distant look in her eye as she thought, but she remained silent. Nell looked frustrated, as though she was about to get up and kick Ishida in the shin or something. Ishida looked smug, apparently glad that his riddle had stumped everyone.

"Too hard, Ithida-than!" Nell cried out finally. "Too hard! You're no fun!"

Ishida's smile faded as he gave her an equally frustrated look. "I'm just playing the game! They're supposed to be hard!"

"Not _that_ hard!"

'_Hard?_' Hichigo laughed as the two of them continued arguing. '_I'm surprised nobody's gotten it yet. It's not a difficult riddle._'

Ichigo blinked. "_You know the answer?_"

'_I'm _not_ surprised that _you_ haven't figured it out,_' Hichigo smirked at him. '_But isn't it obvious? He's a pencil._'

Ichigo's mouth fell open slightly, dawning realization coming over him as he tried to remember exactly what Ishida had said and connect it to Hichigo's answer. "_Creates on one end, and destroys on the other. Writing and erasing._"

Hichigo rolled his eyes. '_You see, this is why _I_ should be in charge of thinking. You suck at it. Now are you going to tell them or not?_'

"I know the answer," Ichigo said aloud almost automatically, halting Ishida and Nell's yelling mid-sentence.

Ishida raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh? Okay, then what?"

Ichigo hesitated. "It's... Well, actually, Hichigo told it to me..."

A strange expression crossed everyone's faces, but then Rukia shrugged, trying hard to appear nonchalant. "Okay, so, out with it. What's his guess?"

"He says it's a pencil," Ichigo relayed.

Ishida looked surprised, but then he smiled, giving a nod. "Yes, that's correct. See, Nell, it wasn't too hard."

Nell pouted, turning to Ichigo. "Tell an eathy one, pleathe!" she requested.

Ichigo froze, a scowl spreading across his face. "Hey, wait. That's not what I was..." he sighed, trying to think. "I hate coming up with riddles," he grumbled.

"You don't have to," Rukia spoke up, not looking at him. "You said that it was..." she hesitated, as if saying the name was difficult for her, "it was Hichigo who answered the riddle."

Nell brightened. "That'th right! It'th _hith_ turn to tell one, Itsugo!

As Rukia's words sank in, Ichigo grinned, a wave of relief flooding through him as he realized that she was finally going to try giving Hichigo a chance. Her stiffness gave away that she wasn't fully comfortable with the idea yet, but she was willing to try it; to try trusting him. Even if it was just this small amount, it was a step in the right direction.

And maybe he could push it a step further.

Quickly, he nodded. "All right. Give me a second." Closing his eyes, he took a mental step back, pushing Hichigo forward.

'_Hey!_' the hollow resisted, growling at him. '_Don't shove me! What are you trying, moron?_'

"_It's your turn to tell a riddle,_" Ichigo argued. "_And I'm not going to be an interpreter or whatever. I'll feel even more like a moron if I have to sit there repeating everything you say. Get out there!_"

Hichigo scoffed at him, trying to shove Ichigo back into control. '_Are you _trying_ to make your friends kill us both?_'

"_It's just a game,_" Ichigo protested, shoving right back. "_Go show them that you can be friendly._"

'_I don't _want_ to be friendly,_' Hichigo snapped, mentally digging his heels in to keep himself where he was. '_That stupid Vaizard girl's going to shoot hollow repellent kidou at me even if the others do nothing._'

Ichigo let out a noise of irritation, still pushing. "_I told her not to. She won't unless she thinks I'm struggling!_"

'_Yeah? Well, we're struggling now, you jerk!_'

"What in the world is...?" Lisa's stunned voice broke through their argument, and Ichigo opened an eye slowly to see what she was talking about. Not surprisingly, she was staring at him, her mouth slightly agape. Behind her, Ishida looked almost amused, while the others looked somewhat wary.

Lisa continued as if he wasn't there, seeming to talk mostly to herself, her eyes still wide. "They're fighting over control, but they're trying to push _each_ _other_ into control. I... have never seen..."

Ishida shook his head. "Kurosaki, you never cease to bewilder me."

Ichigo scowled. "Shut up. It's his turn to tell a riddle, and I'm not going to be a go-between," he said defensively.

"I take it he doesn't want to talk to us?" Renji asked, raising one tattooed eyebrow.

Shrugging, Ichigo started to reply, but stopped when Chad, sitting beside him, slowly gave him a thumbs up. "Nothing will happen if he comes out," he promised shortly, facing away from him towards the others as he spoke as if to serve as a body guard.

"_See?_" Ichigo said triumphantly to Hichigo. "_They're—Hey!_"

Obviously annoyed, Hichigo brushed Ichigo aside and abruptly took control, deliberately letting his reiatsu flare as he did so to emphasize the change. "Che. You say that as if I have any reason at all to be scared of any of you," he scoffed, glaring around at each of them as the hollow mask began to form across his face.

Lisa shifted immediately to a defensive position. Anyone could see her extreme uneasiness, the Vaizard only remaining where she was with her sword sheathed through sheer willpower. The others (with the exception of the Arrancar trio) seemed unnerved as well as they tried to adjust to the sudden hollow reiatsu emanating from their friend.

Hichigo grinned, leaning back as casually as he could manage as he waited for a response from one of them.

Ichigo blinked in vague surprise as he noted how tense his hollow was, the faint hint of fear that he could sense, now that Hichigo was the one in control. Every muscle seemed to scream a readiness to leap into battle, his hand itching to reach for Zangetsu.

"_Not scared,_" he mimicked Hichigo sarcastically, giving him a mental smirk. "_Right._ _You still think they're all going to jump you._"

'_Shut up, jerk,_' Hichigo shot at him, keeping his attention focused outward. '_I'm a hollow. We're made of fear. It keeps us alive._'

Ichigo didn't know what to say; he hadn't expected a response like that.

It was Nell, of course, who broke the thick silence, bounding forward with a squeal of joy and hurling herself at Hichigo. Still tense and anticipating an attack, Hichigo barely stopped himself from drawing Zangetsu on the happy girl. In his moment of hesitation, she nearly knocked him right off of Bawabawa's back as she barreled into him, hugging him tightly. "Yay! Hitsugo'th here!"

"Hey!" Hichigo sputtered, thoroughly disoriented, trying to shove her away. Of all the reactions he'd been anticipating, this obviously wasn't one of them. "You brat! That's a good way to get yourself cut in half!"

Nell just grinned cheerfully up at him as she cuddled into his chest. "Hi! I'm Nell Tu!"

This, unfortunately, seemed to trigger her companions into sudden action, taking up poses behind her. "And I'm Pesche!"

"Dondo-!"

"I know!" Hichigo debated throwing Nell at them to shut them up, but he couldn't get the girl-turned-barnacle to release the front of his shihakusho, so he had to settle for snapping at them, "I can see whatever Ichigo sees, you idiots!"

Dondochakka looked sad. "We were hoping you'd add your name to the end, Don'tcha know..."

"After all," Pesche added with a wink, "we _are_ the Four Brothers, right?"

"I thought we agreed on Bandit Neldonpego!" Nell protested, turning in Hichigo's lap to face her 'siblings'.

"It was the Great Desert Brothers, Don'tcha know!"

"Great Dethert Brotherth doethn't have 'Hitsugo' in it!" Nell argued emphatically, gesturing wildly up at Hichigo with one hand.

Pesche scoffed. "I thought we agreed to call him Go, Ichi!"

"I kind of liked Shiro, Don'tcha know," Dondochakka reminded them.

"Too many ethes!" Nell exclaimed.

Hichigo let out an irritated sigh, but he couldn't keep an amused grin from his face. "You're all morons," he informed them. He then proceeded to ignore them, turning back to the others. "What are you staring at?"

Renji had a hand clamped to his mouth, smothering a laugh. Rukia was also biting back laughter, though doing a better job of it than the other Shinigami. Chad and Ishida looked amused as well, and even Lisa's dangerous, defensive look had relaxed to some degree.

Ichigo mentally smirked. Leave it to Nell and her group to break the ice for them.

"I believe," Ishida began, pushing his glasses back up onto his face, "that it's your turn to tell a riddle."

Hichigo snorted. "You're all still on about that?" Without waiting for a response, he shrugged. "Fine, whatever."

"Make it an eathy one, Hitsugo!" Nell pleaded, blinking up at him with puppy dog eyes.

Hichigo just laughed, his echoing double voice making the noise unnecessarily creepy. "No promises!" he said with a grin. "I've got one already. You decide if it's easy or not."

Nell clapped. "Okay!"

"All right." Hichigo smirked knowingly. "I am an illusion, though I show only what is real. I mark your every flaw. Some love me. Many fear me. You wish I was perfect, but you are the one who must change. What am I?"

The group went deathly silent as the words sunk in. If not for the hiss of the sand as Bawabawa continued to travel onward, a dropped pin would have been deafening in the abrupt stillness.

Even Ichigo went quiet with awe. He could see the answer to Hichigo's riddle—the _double_ answer to Hichigo's riddle—and he could tell that the others (with the exception of a very confused Nell) all saw at least part of it as well, but nobody dared to speak.

Several moments passed as Nell sat with a scrunched up, thoughtful expression, and the others merely stared at Hichigo in shock.

"You," Lisa finally began wonderingly, appearing subdued as she looked Hichigo in the face, "are a mirror. A reflection."

Hichigo grinned widely, but he kept his voice quiet as he spoke. "I wondered if you'd ever see that."

This said, he mentally stepped back with a laugh, pushing Ichigo into control again. The orange-haired teen was surprised enough that he didn't resist, simply blinking as the mask on his face shattered, scattering before him and vanishing.

The first thing he noticed was Nell glaring at him. "Hey! I wathn't done talking to Hitsugo!" she complained.

Ichigo gave a light laugh, placing a hand reassuringly on Nell's head. "I guess he said everything he wanted to say."

"And man, did he have something to say!" Renji commented loudly, looking flabbergasted. "Was it just me, or was every line in that thing meant to describe himself?"

Ishida adjusted his glasses. "Possibly."

Still somewhat stunned, Ichigo returned his attention to Hichigo. "_Did you make that up off the top of your head just now?_"

'_When else would I have come up with it?_' Hichigo smirked at him.

"_But _every_ line..._"

Hichigo scoffed. '_Just because you're slow doesn't mean I am._'

Ichigo couldn't help but smirk back at him, letting the insult slide for now. "_That was amazing._"

Hichigo ignored the compliment with a shrug and a roll of his eyes. '_People are talking to you,_' he pointed out dryly.

Hurriedly, Ichigo focused outward again, taking in everyone around him and noticing that a few people were looking at him. He gave them a guilty, sheepish smile. "Sorry, what?"

Renji gave him a wry grin. "I said, does he always act like that?"

"An arrogant smart-aleck, you mean?" Ichigo smirked again, shaking his head. "Yeah, unfortunately. You get used to it."

"He's smarter than you are," Ishida commented nonchalantly, pretending to avoid eye contact as he gave Ichigo a concerned frown.

Ichigo shot him a scowl. "He is not," he protested automatically, glancing at Lisa. He could tell from her expression both that she agreed with Ishida and that this worried her. Immediately, his scowl deepened. "He isn't," he said again more fervently. "We both have our strengths and weaknesses. I don't happen to like riddles; he makes up metaphors and stuff all the time just for fun. Of course he's better at it."

Hichigo scoffed at him, but Ichigo ignored it, leveling a challenging glare at Lisa.

She raised an eyebrow at him questioningly, and then calmly took the invitation to throw an insult Ichigo's direction. "And the part you're better at is...?"

"Why, you..."

Thankfully, before anything else could happen there, Chad spoke up, looking over everyone's shoulders. "We're here."

A bit startled at that, they all turned, following his gaze and his pointing finger. To Ichigo's surprise, Las Noches seemed to have jumped forward a huge amount since he'd last looked at it, and the palace loomed colossally before them. The outer-most wall stood less than fifty meters away, that distance quickly closing to near nothing as the hollow they rode on slid to a stop.

"BAWA!" the thing cried triumphantly, lifting its head in the air and then almost nuzzling the tall, white wall.

Everyone hastily climbed down, none of them (with the possible exception of Nell and her group) wanting to be on the thing any longer than they had to be. The hollow had been useful getting them there, but it was still annoying; rather like its owners, really.

Ichigo let out a sigh of relief as he stared up at the white barrier before him. In all the chaos with Hichigo, he'd nearly forgotten the original point of coming here in the first place; but now that Inoue and her captors were within reach, he found himself filled with a rejuvenating sense of purpose. He would win any battles he fought here; he had to, for her sake.

"All right everyone," he said confidently, starting forward. "Let's do this."

* * *

Sliding off the giant hollow and back onto the sand, Rukia couldn't help but keep her gaze on Ichigo as he strode towards the towering white walls of Las Noches. She'd been trying to keep her observations discreet as they rode, but now that there was less chance of him noticing the scrutiny, she watched him carefully.

Honestly, she still wasn't sure what to think about all of this.

The past month—over a month—she'd been doing everything she could to help him, and in the end, what had she really accomplished?

She had tried to keep Soul Society's attention away from him, to keep them from outcasting him for something that wasn't even his fault. But who knew how successful that had been; probably not very.

She had tried to offer Ichigo her support, and she'd watched his back while he went through what she had assumed to be a difficult, stressful time. She'd even gone inside his head (albeit somewhat accidentally) just to see if he was alright. And now she knew _those_ efforts weren't successful; she'd missed what had been right in front of her.

All that time, all of her efforts, and Ichigo hadn't even noticed. No, worse; she'd been in his way.

But he hadn't bothered to tell her anything! How could she have known? He and his inner hollow had...

And that was the other incredibly disconcerting thing about all of this. Ichigo was working with his inner hollow, and somehow he _trusted_ him. It was difficult for her to wrap her head around. After all that time...

Watching him now, as he and Renji discussed briefly how they were going to get through the wall, she could see the clues and hints she'd missed before. The way he'd stop and tilt his head slightly as if listening to something nobody else could hear. The smirk that would appear for no particular reason. The wit in his comments that could very well have been picked up from his inner hollow, from what she'd seen earlier.

The more she thought about it, the more it made sense to her. It explained why he'd insisted on training by himself inside his mind for such long periods of time. It explained why he'd stopped appearing worried over his inner hollow, and why he'd always acted strange whenever she'd brought up the subject.

However, it could also explain why he'd spent such a long time training at something as seemingly minor as reiatsu control instead of something potentially more helpful. As much as she wanted to support her friend, she couldn't help but be a little wary. How could he trust his inner hollow so freely?

A sigh escaped her lips as she followed the rest of the large group into Las Noches through the big hole that Ichigo and Renji smashed into the side of it, trying to ignore Nell as she protested their method of entry.

Rukia really did want to give the hollow the benefit of the doubt and at least _try_ to trust him, but it came hard to her. Maybe if he'd ever shown any concern in the past...

But what if he had? She had to shake her head sharply as Ichigo's explanation from earlier came back to her: _"Look, he wasn't trying to threaten you. He's not very tactful, I'll admit, but he just wanted you to stop trying to get up. You were hurt."_

The words hadn't really clicked when he'd first said them, and she didn't understand them much better now. He hadn't been trying to threaten her? But the only thing he'd said to her was how pathetic she was. "You're too weak to be making demands like that," he'd laughed when she'd ordered him to give Ichigo back.

At the time, she had been nothing but grateful that the conversation hadn't lasted too long before Ichigo managed to wrestle control back, (And what was with _that_, anyway?) but now she just felt like she'd been left hanging with little to go by. She hadn't seen him for long enough to tell what his intentions were.

But then, she'd seen plenty of him on her misadventures inside Ichigo's mental world. The only one who had said anything even vaguely threatening to her at all while she'd been there was Ichigo himself, and maybe Zangetsu informing her that she wasn't supposed to be there. The hollow—Hichigo, of all the names Ichigo could have chosen—he'd spent the entire encounter acting very laid back, laughing and poking fun at her and Ichigo whenever he could.

Mostly, Rukia had found herself amused by him more than anything else; it was impossible to take him seriously, laughing as he'd been (and with those sunglasses!) especially once Ichigo had pushed him off the edge of a building. He'd pushed his inner hollow—inner Arrancar, even—off of a building! The whole idea was simply ridiculous!

With all that, it was nearly impossible to imagine the white Ichigo as dangerous or monstrous, and Ichigo hadn't acted like his hollow's behavior was in any way out of the ordinary, either. As she doubted that Ichigo would try to cover up his hollow's true nature (or that he'd be any good at it), she could be fairly certain that what she'd seen was what she would get from Hichigo.

His message earlier, with the riddle, also seemed to confirm her thoughts that what she'd thought of him could be wrong. She couldn't very well pretend she hadn't heard what he really meant plain and clear: You've been misreading me the entire time you're known me. I'm not what you think I am. I am more like Ichigo than you know.

And because she had no proof one way or the other, she would try to trust him.

She'd just have to get over the fact that every time she'd tried to make eye contact with Hichigo, images of the hollow that had forced control of Kaien's body had returned to her mind and superimposed themselves over what she was seeing. She'd have to convince herself that this was different; Ichigo was okay with this.

It would be difficult—mind-numbingly so—and that trust would not come easily. But as she watched her friend walking ahead of her in the darkness, her resolution only became more firm: she knew she had to try.

* * *

Hi, all. I'm honestly not exactly sure what to write for author notes this time around. (Hence the lack of them at the beginning, too.)

So I guess I'll just say, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! =D Let me know what you think!

I know there hasn't been a whole lot of action recently in Feeling Hollow. For the last two or three chapters, it's been mostly revelations and introspection. Which isn't bad, per say, just not very exciting. But don't worry; the action stuff and battle scenes will return next chapter, when I finally get around to starting it!

On a random note, it's kind of hard to believe I've been writing this for a good two and a half years now, especially since that first chapter was going to be just a one-shot! And even more amazing is the stats on it that continue to grow ridiculously. The support you guys give me for this story is awesome. Thank you all so much!

And you all should thank Obi-Quiet, too. Not only for her awesome beta work, but for the inspiration she gave me to (somewhat grudgingly, I'll admit) continue this story when I was about ready to just be done with it right here. Thanks, Obi! Don't worry, I won't give up yet!

Kay, I think that's everything I need to say. Hope you can bear to wait through my inordinately long update periods so you can see the next chapter! =D (Er, yeah, sorry about that)

-Daricio


	6. Not Sweet like Chocolate

So, there's this fanfiction that I really enjoy reading that updated the other day. I was greatly surprised (but happy!) that it had, since it hadn't actually updated before that time in three years! I thought to myself, "Wow. At least _my_ readers don't have to put up with update times like that!"

And then I looked at Feeling Hollow and realized that it's been almost a year since my last update. Again. D= I'm so sorry!

I have my usual list of excuses, of course. They include Day Before Tomorrow, college, a bad sleep disorder called hypersomnia (and we're currently testing for narcolepsy), the fact that I write very slowly, college... And, of course, the fact that Feeling Hollow was originally meant to be a one-shot (remember that?) so I don't really have a very specific plot planned out for it...

But my excuses are rather lame, and the story is the important part! So let's get to it!

* * *

Augh, it's been such a long time since I updated this thing. D= I'd better give a summary of events again so that you don't have to read it all the way from the beginning again. (Though, if you want to read it from the beginning again, please, be my guest!)

Our story began long, long ago, during Ichigo and Grimmjow's first battle. Out of frustration, Ichigo accidentally threw his hollow into control, which spurred a bizarre turn of events that resulted in the orange-haired Shinigami actually trusting his hollow to some extent. The two of them worked out a deal: the hollow trains Ichigo until they're both as strong as they can possibly be (or until the hollow decides to quit training him) and then they'll have one decisive fight for control.

This training went on for about a month, with Hichigo teaching Ichigo various things like controlling his reiatsu during battle, changing the size and form of his Getsuga Tenshou attack, and bettering his battle skills and speed in general. (And Urahara stuck Rukia in Ichigo's mental world for a while; that was funny.)

Then the Vaizard got fed up with Ichigo not coming to them, so (with a terrible cliffhanger) they kidnapped him. D=

Turns out the Vaizard are pretty chill, though, and once Urahara informs them that Hichigo is likely actually an Arrancar rather than just a hollow, and that Ichigo and his hollow are working together, they send him off to Hueco Mundo (with Lisa as a guard) to help rescue Inoue. (They're not happy about this, mind you, but they do it anyway.)

He meets up with his friends (and Nell's group), they sort of freak out about Hichigo for a while (and make fun of his ridiculous name for the millionth time), and as they travel towards Las Noches, they avoid a boring game of I Spy by instead telling riddles to each other.

At that point, they _finally_ reached Las Noches, and that catches us up to our current events. =D

* * *

"Sorry, Nell..." Ichigo kept his gaze forward as the reiatsu coming from the five corridors shook them all. Unconsciously, a smile of anticipation began to grow across his face. "Looks like it really is going to be goodbye here. The reiatsu ahead is going to be too much for you to handle."

Surprisingly, the green-haired girl didn't have much to say about this—probably too shocked by the power surge from ahead—but he wasn't really paying her much attention anyway, all of his senses focused on the doorways.

The reiatsu felt strong in every direction, and he couldn't figure out which door had the strongest concentration. Even with his own reiatsu contained and out of the way, the other signatures were all blurred together so that he couldn't tell them apart. Only one thing could be concluded: no matter which direction they went, they'd all run into incredibly powerful enemies.

Ishida, of course, was the first to try strategizing, examining the doorways skeptically with a frown. "Five paths... Should we search each one individually? We can create a map of where we've been and from there-"

"No. Obviously, the best course of action here is to split up." Rukia spoke with confidence, but her eyes betrayed a hint of uncertainty as she glanced at Ichigo.

The orange-headed teen scowled at her. "You're kidding, right? It's too dan-"

"I agree with Kuchiki-san," Lisa input boredly, not turning to face any of them. "It will be faster if we don't have to search them one at a time. Safer, too, since Ichigo will be separated from you lot."

Ichigo sent her a glare that she didn't see. "Are you still on about that?" he shot. "Maybe you've forgotten, but there are _Espada_ out there, and who knows what else. We'll be better off sticking together."

"Who exactly are you worried about, Ichigo?" Renji asked suspiciously. "Cause if you think _I_ can't handle whatever's out there, I'll pound you so far into the floor that you'll never have to worry about any Espada ever finding you. And if you're worried about Rukia, I'll hit you even harder than that. Got it?"

Eyes flashing at the challenge, Ichigo turned on him. "What was that?"

Renji didn't back down. "Showing worry for a soldier on the battlefield only shows that you see weakness in that soldier. Don't insult any of us that way."

Ichigo's scowl deepened. "I wasn't thinking anything like that at all. Look, insult or not, we're stronger together, and we're going to need that strength against these guys."

"We're all strong individually as well, Kurosaki," Ishida said pointedly, smoothing down his mini-cape disinterestedly. "I do _not_ need help from anyone, especially not a Shinigami."

"None of us came here to be protected by anyone else," Rukia added matter-of-factly, giving him a hard look. "Not us, and not you either. Whatever else was going on between us, we really only came here for one thing: to rescue Inoue. And we will succeed."

Ichigo frowned. Her words made some sense, but still...

Taking a step towards her, he opened his mouth to reply, but stopped when Chad gently laid a hand on his shoulder. Slowly, he looked up at his large friend, who merely gave him a thumbs-up. "They're right. We'll be okay."

Renji grinned triumphantly at him. "There. We've got five votes for splitting up, and one for sticking together, Ichigo. Quit worrying and let's go get your friend, already!"

'_Six votes for splitting up, actually,_' Hichigo inputted smugly. '_Seriously, what's your problem? You're not actually_ scared_ of these Arrancar, are you?_'

Ichigo rolled his eyes, turning away from the group to face the doorways again. "I'm not scared, or worried, or whatever. It's just that teamwork is usually more effective than going it alone, so I'd rather we stick together." Rukia started to protest, but Ichigo kept going, letting out a quick sigh. "You're right, though. There are more reasons to split up than not to. We've got to find Inoue quickly, before something happens to her. So, let's go do this."

"Right!" Renji grinned. "Then before we go, let's do something for good luck."

Turning in surprise, Ichigo blinked at him. He hadn't expected a delay of any kind from Renji after the pushing he'd just done. "Good luck? What do you mean?"

Renji shrugged, trying to look nonchalant. "Before heading off into a serious battle, there's a ritual-like chant that we do in the Gotei 13. No one really ever uses it anymore, but it might be a good idea. So! Everyone put your hands in!"

It didn't take the red-head long to notice that nobody had moved. A scowl spread across Renji's face as everyone stared at him incredulously. "Hey, don't look at me like that! I don't even want to do it myself!" he lied blatantly, suddenly irritable and uncomfortable.

Finally, Ichigo decided to humor him. Rolling his eyes, he put his hand down on Renji's, and slowly, Chad, Rukia, and Ishida joined him.

To Ichigo's vague amusement, Hichigo also put his hand in, in a manner of speaking; Ichigo could mentally feel him close behind, reaching out as if to take control of his right arm without moving Ichigo out of the way first. The result was a strange partial overlap, which felt bizarrely like his arm had gone halfway numb. The perpetual smirk on the hollow's face leaked over to Ichigo's expression a little.

Nell and her group were still frozen to their spots, gawking at everyone else. Lisa deliberately stood back, her arms folded, looking the other direction. Renji ignored them, looking down at everyone's hands and beginning his chant.

"We, who are about to head into the battlefield!" he yelled out, his words echoing faintly in the large chamber. "Believe! That our blades will not shatter! Believe! That our souls will not be cut! Though our steps separate us, our determination will remain solid! Promise! Even if the very ground splits open beneath our feet, we _will _come back to this place alive!"

Taking his cue, the whole group moved together, shoving downwards on the pile of hands. As one, they turned away and took off, each toward a different corridor. Without hesitation, Lisa joined Ichigo as he ran through his chosen doorway, but Ichigo found himself too distracted to even bother feeling irritated at her.

"_That was odd,_" he commented, experimentally clenching and unclenching his right hand. "_What was that?_"

Hichigo snickered. '_I always wondered what would happen if we tried moving at the same time,_' he mused, as if to himself. '_Now I know. It confuses the heck out of our body._'

Ichigo clenched his hand again. It had stopped being numb the moment Hichigo had let go, and there really wasn't anything wrong with it any more, but the sensation at the time had been downright bizarre. "_That's never happened before. Why would it do that?_"

'_It makes sense._' Hichigo shrugged. '_It's harder to feel the parts of you that you aren't currently controlling, so if you're only partially controlling your body, you only feel the bits you have control of. Even if that control is patchy. Of course, if that's what happens when we're both trying to do the same thing, think what would happen if we both tried to move in opposite directions. Would our arm rip apart?_'

Ichigo let his hand drop to his side again, finally focusing on the pathway ahead of him as he ran, Lisa several steps behind him. "_I doubt that. Do you _always_ have to try to come up with the most gruesome scenarios you can?_"

'_Not always,_' Hichigo said off-handedly, smirking at him. '_Only when it makes you squirm._'

Ichigo merely rolled his eyes and kept running, trying to look forward to see the end of the ridiculously long hallway they were in. Like everything they'd come across so far in Hueco Mundo, it almost seemed designed to test his patience. At any moment, something could come up ahead...

Or from behind. Another set of running footsteps joined his and Lisa's from way behind them, making a strange, squishy gurgling noise.

Raising an eyebrow in confusion, Ichigo glanced backwards over his shoulder without stopping. Lisa had also looked back, but didn't seem worried (not that she ever did). What caught his attention, though, was the small green and white thing quickly catching up to them, and Ichigo suddenly realized what the noise was.

"I-I-I-I-ITTHUGO!" Nell sobbed as she ran, her tears making her pronunciation of his name even more slurred than usual. Her whole face was wet with tears and snot, and the girl looked absolutely miserable.

"N-Nell?" Ichigo couldn't help but sputter in disbelief. "I told you not to follow me!"

"ITSUGO!" Nell just cried again, picking up more speed. "I—I—I MITH YOU, ITSUGO!"

With a great sigh, realizing that she wasn't about to stop, Ichigo turned around, crouching down and bracing himself for the impact of 60 pounds of small child. "Right. Catch and release!"

To the surprise of all of them, a flare of light seemed to glint off the eyes of Nell's mask. "Thuper-fatht high thpeed mode!" she yelled out. And then, a split second later, that decidedly hard mask had planted itself directly into Ichigo's gut.

When the orange-headed teen could _breathe_ again, he found himself lying on his back, head nearly touching the wall (he was glad he hadn't smacked into it on top of that) with Nell clinging desperately to his midsection, still crying loudly. Lisa stood several feet away, trying hard but failing miserably to hold in mocking laughter.

"Itsugo!" Nell wailed. "Don't leave! I mithed you! I wanted to thee you!"

Ichigo couldn't quite force his expression into a proper scowl—he was too surprised and too winded—but he gave it his best effort as he stared down at the girl, ignoring Hichigo laughing at him in his head. "W-why me?" he asked no one in particular. "You couldn't go find Ishida?"

"Wanted to thee you!" Nell clung to him tighter. "We'th like _family_, Itsugo, you can't leave uth!"

"Uh huh." Ichigo finally gave her a proper scowl, though she couldn't see it since she had her face buried in the cloth of his shirt as she sobbed. Irritably, he snapped at Hichigo, "_And stop laughing at me. She did it to you, too._"

'_If it was even half as hilarious as that and you didn't take the opportunity to laugh at me, then I have taught you nothing,_' Hichigo snickered.

"_Jerk._"

Lisa, meanwhile, hadn't made a single move to help the disgruntled teen, instead hanging back and watching, her expression schooled into a neutral frown. "Speaking of your 'family', where is the rest of your group?"

Nell sent her a glare, somehow managing to cling even tighter to Ichigo's shihakusho. "I don't like you," she informed Lisa. "You'th a meanie. Leave uth alone."

The Vaizard was, of course, unfazed by this statement, and she merely raised an eyebrow at Ichigo, obviously trying to get him to ask her instead. He sighed and, trying in vain to tug Nell off of his shirt, asked her the same question. "Not that I don't totally agree with you, Nell, but she's got a point. Where's the rest of those weirdos?"

"Bawabawa had to thtay outthide!" Nell informed him cheerfully, beaming at him. "He hath to keep eating thand, or he'll die!"

'_The hollow has to eat sand, why?_' Hichigo wondered to himself. '_Sure, it's got a ton of reiatsu in it, like everything here, but a hollow of that size..._'

Ichigo shook his head, tuning out his hollow to focus on Nell. "I wasn't talking about your pet. I meant Don-whatsisface and the other guy."

Nell's eyes lit up. "Oh! Dondochakka and Petthe! They'th following me, thee?" She turned and pointed down the hallway the way she'd come. "Right behind... me..."

The enormously long hallway was empty for as far as they could see.

"N-not there?" Nell immediately began to panic, finally releasing Ichigo's shirt in favor of jumping down and running in distressed circles. "They'th lotht! Dondochakka and Petthe ith lotht!"

Ichigo stared at her in vague disbelief. "I'd say that you're the one who's lost," he commented dully.

"We should keep going," Lisa said, shaking her head. "If the girl wants to follow us, then short of tying her up and leaving her in a corner somewhere, there's not much we can do about it."

"Lotht!" Nell completed her circle by running back up into Ichigo's lap and grabbing large handfuls of his shihakusho. "We can't leave them on their own! We'th gotta go rethcue them, Itsugo!"

Ichigo could come up with a million reasons not to do _that_. Irritably, he opened his mouth to speak, but stopped suddenly as an unfamiliar reiatsu registered at the edges of his senses. Lisa seemed to feel it as well, and they both looked up at the same time, peering intently at the rafters above them.

He didn't see anything, but he wasn't taking any chances. Quickly, he got to his feet, pushing Nell behind him so that he was between her and whatever was lurking up there. The green-haired girl seemed to sense his sudden seriousness, because instead of protesting, she let him move her, questioning quietly, "What? What'th wrong, Itsugo?"

The orange-haired teen didn't answer her, his gaze narrowing. "Who's up there?" he called to the source of the reiatsu in the rafters. Lisa's hand strayed to the hilt of her zanpakutou.

No answer came from above, but one of the rafters suddenly crumbled as a fairly distinct shadow of a man leapt to a closer one, and then continued on to the next. The rest of the ledges above actually held his weight (thankfully enough; rubble raining down on them would not be pleasant) as he kept going, first directly above the group, and then past them.

Ichigo grit his teeth, he and Lisa both turning to follow him. "He's running. Hey! Get back here!"

The figure above glanced down at him. "Che," he scoffed, his voice dark and mysterious. "Who would run-"

Just then, he missed his next step, his foot sliding completely off the rafter. "Away?" his question turned into a startled yelp as he plummeted to the ground, both arms pinwheeling desperately. Then, with an undignified crash, he landed hard, throwing up dust high into the air.

For a long moment, there was silence as the group merely watched the settling cloud in vague disbelief. Lisa let her hand drop back to a relaxed position, taking a few slow steps back to lean boredly against the nearest pillar, and Ichigo just stood dumbfounded beside her, Nell clinging to his leg with a blank, unfocused expression on her face.

The stillness was broken, for Ichigo anyway, by his inner hollow letting out an unimpressed snort. '_That was all kinds of fail. Doesn't that guy realize he can stand on the air in Hueco Mundo?_'

"Hya~!" A strange cry from within the dust coupled itself with a hand that thrust out of it. Then, a split second later, it withdrew back inside and what was probably a knee jabbed out. "Hya~! Hya, Hya, Hya, Hya, Hyaaaaaa~!" Ichigo's incredulous look only grew as he realized that the Arrancar was just striking random poses in the dust.

Finally, he froze in one last pose, flaring his reiatsu just enough to send his smoke cover dissipating away. "Ta da~!" he finished dramatically.

The man was, in a word, completely ridiculous, from his horrible entrance to his bizarre clothing. His shirt had been designed to open in regular places down the middle as though buttons were straining, which gave him the appearance of someone who'd had way too much to eat at a buffet even though he was thin. The frilly sash at his waist looked disturbingly more like a feather boa than anything else. To top it all off, his hair had been styled into two sleek black devil horns on either side of his head, matching up with the same spikes his hollow mask remains gave him. Completing the devil look was a well-trimmed goatee and mustache.

"_You've gotta be joking..._" In sheer disbelief, Ichigo didn't even bother voicing the thought.

Silence fell over the area again, the Arrancar still posing and the rest of them not quite sure what to do about him.

Slowly, the strange man looked up at them, eyeing their faces with a raised eyebrow. When he saw their deadpan expressions, he whirled suddenly, pointing a dramatic finger at them all. "What's with that reaction?" he exclaimed.

"... It's just-" Ichigo automatically tried to offer a dull comment, but was interrupted.

"What's with that reaction? What's with that reactiooooooooon?" The pointing finger waved wildly in circles at them all, the man's voice going higher and higher in his disbelief.

A vague scowl crossed Ichigo's face for a moment as, disturbingly, the man's resemblances to a certain, eccentric "ghost fighter" came to mind. Don Kanonji, Arrancar style?

"You've gotta be kidding me," he muttered it out loud this time. "_Honestly, he'd better not start screaming 'Bwahahaha'._"

"This is not worth my time," Lisa said dryly, apparently in agreement of Ichigo's comment. Without moving from her lounged position against the pillar, she pulled her book out of her bag and buried her nose in it.

"Why?" The man demanded. "Why do you pretend to be so unaffected when you're so obviously in awe of me?"

Ichigo raised an eyebrow at him. "We don't have to pretend. We're not in awe of anything."

"But what about my wonderful entrance?" He began to sound almost desperate.

For a moment, Ichigo just stared at him. "You stumbled and fell just now," he pointed out.

The Arrancar looked as though Ichigo's comment had severely wounded him. Then, with a shake of his head, he finally attempted to compose himself. "Right... I can see already the vast difference in our senses... I'll have to _show_ you how magnificent I am!" Irritatingly, he struck another pose. "Prepare yourselves, Shinigami, Schoolgirl, and Baby! I, Arrancar number 103, Dordonii-sama, will crush you here!"

Lisa, who supposedly wasn't listening to him anymore, let out a snort. "103," she murmured to herself. "That's new."

"That's a ridiculously huge number," Ichigo noted flatly. He looked down at Nell. "Didn't you say the ones with numbers had 2 digits?"

Nell agreed. "It'th uthually jutht two digitth, yeah. I've never even heard of three digitth..."

"Aizen's army hasn't grown to over a hundred, has it?" Lisa looked up to give the Arrancar a critical look. "Even if it has, that would have to mean you're very new. Unless you lot changed the numbering system on me again."

Dordonii looked furious. "You're ignoring me again! You completely missed the point of my stupendous announcement!"

Ichigo slowly shook his head. "Nah, we got it, Dordonii. You're not only a complete embarrassment to fashion, but you're kind of a weakling, too."

'_Though you wouldn't think that judging from his reiatsu,_' Hichigo noted interestedly. '_He has a lot, and seems to know how to handle it, too._'

Ichigo gave a tiny nod. "_Yeah, I did notice that,_" he confirmed. "_I think he's trying to make us underestimate him. But if he thinks we're underestimating him when we're really watching him, he'll underestimate us and we can get him. Which is why I'm trying to tick him off,_" he added with a smirk.

Hichigo snorted. '_I wondered why you were acting like a jerk. Good thing you have a lot of practice with that particular act._'

Ichigo pretended not to catch the insult as his hollow laughed at him, instead viewing the Arrancar's reaction to his words.

Dordonii fumed at his weakling comment, waving both fists in the air and grinding his teeth. "Why... you... Why don't you see for yourself? Don't be crying after I trample you, niño!" With that, he drew his sword and leapt at Ichigo to attack.

The Arrancar was fast.

Ichigo's shunpo made him faster. He didn't even make a move towards his own zanpakutou sheathed on his back, simply stepping to a spot just behind his oncoming opponent, turning on his heel and moving to shove him forward.

Dordonii reacted better to that than Ichigo had expected, though, and he had to jump backwards to avoid the Arrancar's sword as he twisted and swung at him. He got away from most of it, but the tip of the blade sliced a small rip into the front of his shihakushou.

Landing firmly on the ground, Ichigo glanced down, purposefully ignoring the other man to instead inspect the tear in his clothing with a vague scowl, as if he cared about it at all. "Oh, great. More for Ishida to repair later."

"Don't take your eyes off of your opponent!" Dordonii shouted, coming at him again.

Without looking up, Ichigo spun around, ducking slightly so that the Arrancar's sword merely glanced off of Zangetsu on his back. A quick shunpo off to the side then gave him enough time to reach up and grab the hilt of his sword, sending his opponent a grin.

"Out of my way, Don panini," Ichigo mocked, purposefully messing up the man's name as he unsheathed Zangetsu, "I don't want to waste my time on you. I'm here to rescue my friend. Either move it, or I'll take you down."

The black-haired Arrancar smirked back, sheathing his sword and shaking a finger lightly at him. "You are naïve if you think that getting past me will be so easy."

Ichigo snorted. "Then maybe you should tell me who you really are, instead of dancing around the subject like an idiot. You've got a lot more reiatsu than your number implies. What's the deal with the one hundred and three?"

Dordonii held both hands up in the air, shaking his head and sighing. "I don't think you understand, niño. It doesn't matter _what_ my rank is. _Every_ Arrancar here within the walls of Las Noches is someone you'll have to take seriously in battle, and you're naïve if you think otherwise!"

The orange-haired teen merely frowned impassively back at him, still waiting for the answer to his question.

"Ha!" Dordonii chuckled at him. "Stubborn, aren't you? Fine! Let me inform you of exactly who you're up against here." He paused dramatically, leaning forward. "I am a Privaron Espada."

Lisa made a vague noise of understanding, and then immediately returned her attention to her book. Ichigo glanced over at her, and then down at a still-bewildered-looking Nell, before returning his attention to the strange man before him.

"Yeah, what's that mean?"

"Privaron Espada! A previous Espada!" Dordonii looked impatient now, as though all of this explaining was superfluous. "I used to be one of the Espada, before the current Espada came into power!"

Ichigo frowned, gauging his opponent in light of this new information. Finally, after a moment, he concluded, "So you _used_ to be strong, but now you're not, so you got demoted."

Dordonii grit his teeth. "I am still strong, niño!" he burst out angrily.

With a smirk, Ichigo lifted Zangetsu to a ready position. "Oh, really? Then let's see it. What I said before still stands: I'm going to take you out quickly and move on."

Nell let out a squeal of concern as the devil-haired Arrancar leapt at Ichigo again, this time blurring forward with sonido and moving to deliver a swift kick. Ichigo quickly turned Zangetsu to block, but the force of it still sent him sliding backwards.

With a grimace, Ichigo tried to dig his heels in to stop himself, shoving back against the Arrancar's foot as hard as he could. A second later, he winced as his back made contact with the wall, and the whole thing crumbled around him as he kept going right into the next room.

—where there was apparently no floor underneath him! For a split second, Ichigo floundered, staring downwards toward the ground that was now several meters below him. "Wha?"

"_Pay attention!_" Hichigo snapped at him. Abruptly, his head snapped up on its own, forcing Ichigo's gaze upward toward his opponent. Before he could even think about worrying about his feet, he felt solid ground beneath them as he slid to a stop.

As soon as his mind registered that his hollow had solidified reiatsu under his feet for him, Ichigo shifted back to a defensive stance, blocking another kick from above that the Arrancar was sending at him. His heel came directly into contact with Zangetsu's blade, but strangely, not even his shoe seemed damaged from the hit.

"Don't lose your focus, now!" Dordonii shouted. "A little change in scenery shouldn't be so distracting!"

Ichigo scoffed, twisting Zangetsu to throw the Arrancar off to the side and jumping up for his own attack. "I wasn't distracted," he claimed, swinging at his opponent's torso.

Dordonii leaned back and let himself fall several feet, effectively dodging the blow, and then leapt away several feet, studying Ichigo carefully.

With a scowl, Ichigo paused, watching the Arrancar as well. "Besides," he added, "what are you, my teacher or something? I don't need your fighting tips."

Dordonii laughed, falling into a ready stance again. "Then prove to me that you don't, niño! Show me your full strength! Show me your bankai!"

Ichigo shook his head in slight disbelief. "What, you think that since I don't fight at my full strength against every enemy I come against, I must not know how to fight? Seems to me like going totally overkill on everything in sight is the kind of strategy an idiot would use."

"I never said that you _should_ use full strength against every enemy," Dordonii clarified with a grin. "Just that you should use full strength against _me_! You should have known the moment you sensed my reiatsu that I was a worthy opponent! If you don't use your full strength, niño, you will die here!" With that, he reached to draw his sword.

He only had it out a few inches when it suddenly began to glow. "Whirl," he called out, "Giralda!"

Ichigo braced himself. The Privaron Espada had entered ressurecion.

* * *

Lisa walked leisurely to the massive hole in the wall that her charge's fighting had just caused and leaned against the broken remains, impassively watching the two combatants exchange blows. This fight, she'd already concluded, held little to no potential for being interesting, and she had her book in hand and at the ready.

The Arrancar was no match for what she'd already seen from Ichigo, ex-Espada or not. Certainly nothing to write home about, so long as Ichigo didn't do something stupid; which, knowing him, was unfortunately likely.

Nell, for whatever reason, didn't seem to think so, either about the black-haired man's skill or about Ichigo's general stupidity. The young-looking girl hovered worriedly near Lisa's side, gazing at Ichigo with wide, fearful eyes, which only grew wider when the teen's opponent released his sword.

Lisa sighed, glancing down at the teal-haired Arrancar. She'd always had a bit of a soft spot for kids, and even though the girl at her feet wasn't really a child at all, but a hollow, Lisa couldn't help but to feel that she should say something.

"He'll be fine," she murmured shortly. "I've seen him fight worse opponents."

Nell sent her a quick glare, opening her mouth as though to protest automatically, but fell silent as she realized that doing so would undermine her new best friend. Stubbornly, the girl went back to watching Ichigo fight.

With a slow frown, the Vaizard adjusted her glasses minutely. She still wasn't sure exactly what she'd done to deserve Nell's extreme disapproval, but she suspected, with great annoyance, that it was somehow linked to the girl's extreme attachment to the orange-headed teen.

Lisa shook her head slightly as said orange-headed teen managed to get himself smacked into the far wall by a strangely hollow-masked cyclone that Dordonii had thrown at him. As soon as he recovered, Ichigo went to Bankai, his reiatsu becoming strangely more contained at this than he'd had it before.

"I almost wish his opponent were stronger than this," she mentioned now, only half-speaking to the Arrancar girl.

This statement gave Nell something that she apparently felt she could properly glare at Lisa for. "Why would you with for thomething like that?" she demanded fearfully. "Itsugo'th having enough troubleth!"

A faint smile crossed Lisa's lips. "Exactly."

"You jutht hate Itsugo, don't you?" Nell accused. "An' you hate Hitsugo even more!"

About to respond with an amused "no" to her first accusation, Lisa found that she had to pause at the second.

A jumble of conflicted emotions crossed her face for a moment, before she shook her head again. "I have nothing against Ichigo," she said eventually. "And as for his inner hollow..." she hesitated.

Nell pouted. "There'th nothing wrong with Hitsugo," she insisted. "He'th awethome! It'th not _hith_ fault he'th thtuck to a Thinigami!"

Her strange wording brought Lisa up short for a moment, and she shot a confused glance down at the girl. "Stuck to a... I thought you liked Ichigo."

The Arrancar looked suddenly horrified. "I _do_ like Itsugo! He'th a _nithe_ Thinigami! An' I didn't even know there _could_ be a nithe Thinigami!"

Lisa sighed at the roundabout logic. This conversation was going nowhere. Swiftly, she brought it somewhat back on track.

"I have my misgivings about Ichigo's hollow." She didn't say this to explain to Nell—she doubted the hollow would understand—but rather to solidify her own feelings on the matter. "The thing is dangerous, both to us and to Ichigo, and in my experience, dangerous hollows are not to be trusted in the slightest."

Nell frowned at this, as though trying to puzzle through her argument. "But he'th not dangerouth. He played gameth with me. It wath fun."

Lisa rolled her eyes at Nell's childishness. Honestly, it was easy to forget, at times, that the girl was an Arrancar—and possibly dangerous herself.

"At any rate, that danger is exactly why I want Ichigo's opponent to quit getting beaten so easily." The Vaizard returned her attention to the fight, where Ichigo's thin, black blade was currently locked against one of the masks of a cyclone. Her charge released one of his black energy waves, which cut right through, and then flash stepped away, barely avoiding the attack of two more oncoming cyclones.

Nell gave Lisa an incredibly deadpan look. "I don't get it," she stated blandly. "You're jutht being thupid. An' mean."

With yet another short sigh, Lisa shook her head again. "If Ichigo can handle his opponents, his hollow is not likely to start their final battle. That means that the ticking time bomb keeps right on ticking. A stronger opponent is more likely to trigger the battle, and that means less trouble for us, all around. I suspect that Ichigo's hoping for exactly the same thing, actually. I've noticed that he hasn't learned any hollow powers yet, and I'd bet-"

"Gah! No!" Ichigo gave a sudden frustrated cry of surprise from below, drawing their attention again. The teen had somehow managed to get himself trapped between several cyclones, and was falling at a rather strange angle, as though he'd just barely gotten out of the way of another attack.

Dordonii took full advantage of this position, letting out a laugh as he charged a cero between his two outstretched hands, fingers forming a pentagram.

"Itsugo!" Nell abruptly dashed forward, but Lisa deftly grabbed the scruff of the green rags the girl wore, holding her back. Nell kept trying to run, the strange light within the mask on her head gleaming as she attempted to activate her 'high speed mode' again. "Lemme go! Itsugo is-!"

Lisa watched her charge impassively, not loosening her grip on Nell despite her screaming. Dordonii fired his cero. "NO!"

With a look of fierce concentration, Ichigo reached out with his free hand and grabbed hold of the air beside him, using that as leverage to suddenly twist himself out of the way. The cero still glanced off of his shoulder, but he missed the majority of it.

Nell stopped pulling against Lisa's hold, merely continuing to watch the battle with dismay on her face. Ichigo got back up, shooting a glance their direction briefly, and Lisa saw his eyes narrow as he noted both of their actions. For a moment, she thought for sure that he would yell something at her, but he seemed to change his mind, turning and flash stepping back at Dordonii again.

"I told you," Lisa informed Nell shortly, "he doesn't need help, nor would I give it to him if he did."

A few tears ran down the Arrancar girl's face. "I... I jutht don't want Itsugo to get hurt," she whispered.

The honest conviction in her voice threw Lisa for a moment, and she stared down at the crying hollow, trying to determine her motivations.

Ichigo had never protected Nell from any danger, though it was possible that she sought to use him for that purpose. Having him around didn't seem to give the Arrancar many tactical advantages, especially with the way her usual group appeared to work, but those group dynamics also could be modified to fit in one whom she saw as having high reiatsu and a friendly disposition.

But somehow, Lisa could tell that it was more than that. Somehow, Ichigo had become this Arrancar's _friend_. Nell didn't just want him to stay alive, she wanted for him not to be hurt. Not for tactical reasons, but out of companionship of some sort.

Lisa frowned. She was aware that part of what made Arrancar powerful was the fact that they'd regained their sense of reason. The few Arrancar that she had fought with showed that well enough. They'd always been more intelligent, better able to strategize, and more likely to actually bother protecting their allies than any normal hollows.

But companionship? Hollows felt loneliness, she knew from many experiences including her own, but in normal hollows, that loneliness always translated to raw hunger; it was why hollows went after their loved ones first. Did Arrancar regain that true, human loneliness along with their human reason?

If Arrancar had the ability to truly _care_ for their allies...

Unbidden, the image of Ichigo's grinning, masked face resurfaced in her mind, his hollow's haunting words coming back to her: _"I wondered if you'd ever see that."_

He was a reflection. A reflection of Ichigo...

Lisa shook her head sharply, stoically returning her attention to Ichigo's battle with the ex-Espada. She'd been trying to come up with possible reasons for the hollow to have agreed to this training since she'd first learned he was doing it, and just because this was the first hint she'd had of something that might possibly make sense didn't mean it was actually correct.

After all, an inner hollow, especially that strong of an inner hollow, that honestly _liked_ working with its Shinigami counterpart? The idea was completely ludicrous.

Nearly as ludicrous as the idea of a Shinigami who seemed to like making friends with Arrancar. Or an Arrancar becoming so strangely attached to a Shinigami in so short a time, for that matter.

As Ichigo clashed again with one of Dordonii's cyclones, Lisa reiterated even more strongly her earlier wish that his opponent could have been more powerful than this. The sooner Ichigo had that final battle with his hollow, the better.

* * *

"_Sorry, Hichigo, looks like you won't be able to fight this time,_" Ichigo sent with a smirk, once again sending a mid-range Getsuga to cut through one of the strange hollow-masked wind tunnels that Dordonii's ressurecion produced. He missed the Arrancar's leg, but only by an inch. "_I'm going to have him down in another minute. He's getting tired._"

Hichigo let out a barking laugh, and Ichigo could feel the thrill of battle that rolled off of him just from his watching this fight. '_Just finish him off!_' he called with excitement. '_But you'd better let me have the next fight, got it?_'

Ichigo's thoughts flashed to the Vaizard watching him, and his smirk grew wider as he imagined the look on her face if he did that. "_Sure thing,_" he agreed easily.

The idea struck him that a suggestion like that from Hichigo would have made Ichigo hesitate, even just a few weeks ago. The trust between them really had come a long way; far more than he ever would have thought. Maybe they could actually pull off this working together thing.

Just as long as the hollow's concealed intentions and half-insane laughter echoing around in his head didn't drive him mad first.

Another of Dordonii's balas went flying past his ear as he dodged around it, and he focused back on his opponent. The ex-Espada had fought harder than Ichigo had expected, requiring him to go fairly quickly into bankai, but defending against him also wasn't as difficult as he'd imagined.

He could tell that Dordonii had come to a similar conclusion. As the fight progressed, the Arrancar's fighting style grew increasingly focused, as though he were trying to pull some hidden power out of nowhere to top Ichigo's strength.

With a yell, the devil-haired man suddenly pulled back all twelve of his cyclones, forcibly creating a lull in the battle as he glared at Ichigo. "Why do you hold back?" he demanded. "Fight me with your full strength, niño!"

Ichigo gave him an incredulous look. "I'm already beating you," he pointed out. "Handle what's in front of you before you go asking for more."

Dordonii seethed furiously. "You still refuse to take me seriously!" he accused.

The orange-haired Shinigami frowned. He thought he'd been doing a very good job of taking Dordonii seriously, considering his bizarre appearance, his almost dance-move-like kick attacks, and the fact that he insisted on using the Spanish term for "little boy" to address him.

"You still assume that I am weak!" Dordonii continued, and at that, his anger cracked enough for Ichigo to see the pain he'd hidden behind it. "I am a worthy opponent, and you _will_ treat me as such!"

Ichigo scowled as the pieces clicked together and understanding dawned. "_I see now. This is about his pride. The current Espada must kick him around a lot since he got demoted._"

Hichigo snorted. '_Tell him to suck it up and get stronger. We worked hard to get where we're at; don't you _dare_ go easy on him just 'cause you feel sorry for him._'

"_Like I would,_" Ichigo shot back. He did feel suddenly a little sorry for the guy, but even he knew that going easy on him would only make things worse. Besides that, he _hadn't_ been going easy on him.

Out loud, he addressed his opponent, meeting his eyes steadily. "What makes you think that I'm holding back on you? This is my full strength."

Dordonii only scoffed at him. "I've heard the reports from others who've fought you, niño. I already know of your hollow powers. Show me your mask!"

Ichigo seriously shook his head. "I do have hollow powers, yeah," he acknowledged. "And having them does make me stronger. But you obviously don't understand them any more than anyone else has, so let me tell you this: that strength is far more than just the addition of a mask."

Dordonii's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that whether it's me or him, whether it's with or without the mask, the fight is the same. We're the same; and that's why we're strong!"

'_Che. You never miss an opportunity to attempt to sound profound, do you?_' Hichigo rolled his eyes, sending him a grin. '_Not that you're _right,_ mind you—I'm _definitely_ still way stronger than you are._'

Ichigo pretended not to hear him. That particular argument could wait for later.

"We?" Having caught his strange wording, Dordonii suspiciously inspected the boy before him. "Who are you referring to?"

Ichigo just scowled. He really didn't feel like explaining all of that again. "Never mind. The point is that I _am_ at my full strength. You stand there and yap at me about not holding back? Don't insult me!"

Leaning forward, he jerked his thumb at his chest, sending a pointed glare at the eccentric Arrancar. "I told you already! I came here for just one purpose: to rescue Inoue! My friends and I _all_ did. You really think I'd betray them all to go easy on some jerk like you? Well, you're wrong!"

Obviously startled at the fire burning in his eyes at the words, Dordonii took a step backward, his mouth falling open a little.

Ichigo went on, gripping Zangetsu tightly in both hands. "If you're here to stop me from getting to my friend, then I'll cut you down, plain and simple. If you're not, if you're just trying to inflate your own ego by fighting me, then I suggest you get out of my way!"

For a split second, Dordonii hesitated, and Ichigo wondered if maybe the Arrancar would actually take the hint to retreat and go _train_ like normal people who wanted to get stronger.

But then his resolve hardened, and he took up his battle stance again. "Well spoken," he said softly. "Perhaps I misjudged you slightly, niño. Come! I will, in fact, impede you on your mission, as will every other soul you encounter here! And don't you ever assume otherwise!"

"_So much for that,_" Ichigo scowled to himself. "_His pride won't let him back off._"

Hichigo started to comment, but Ichigo interrupted him to address Dordonii. "Fine! I'll take you down, NOW!"

With that, he flash stepped toward his opponent, releasing a short-range Getsuga. Dordonii blocked his attack with a few of his cyclones and shoved a quick bala at him, which he ducked around easily.

Ichigo cut through a second bala attack with another Getsuga, and the black crescent continued on towards the Arrancar, forcing him to jump back out of the way.

"Getsuga Tenshou!" Ichigo called out with a smirk as he moved again, purposefully keeping his movements predictable as he let off an easily blocked attack. Easily blocked, but not easily held back, Dordonii discovered a moment later when it collided with his crossed arms: with the addition of the yelled name, the punch behind the attack grew, sending the devil-haired man sliding backwards as he shoved hard against the Getsuga.

Now, he was right where Ichigo wanted him. One flash step brought the orange-haired teen to the Arrancar's side, and without bothering to say the attack's name again, he gathered his energy and flung it out in a medium-sized Getsuga. Immediately, he moved to his back and let off another one. Then a fourth joined the others coming at Dordonii from his right.

Several cyclones ripped through the air as his opponent whipped out his legs in a kick, and to his credit, he managed to block the attacks on either side of him for an instant before they all overwhelmed him. The area seemed for a moment to be encased in red-tinged black.

Ichigo moved back several feet, not yet turning his back on the destruction. Instinctively, he knew that Dordonii was down—he could feel the other's reiatsu dropping sharply as he was forced involuntarily out of his ressurecion—but he wanted to make sure. Better safe than sorry.

He heard Nell gasp from somewhere behind him as the dust and energy from the attack settled and dispersed, revealing the Ex-Espada lying on the ground, eyes still open, but rolled up into the back of his head. His torso was covered in wide gashes sealed closed with burns, and he appeared to be unconscious, at the very least.

Ichigo relaxed, finally stopping to breathe deeply and wincing a little at the cuts and burns he'd acquired himself. Getting hit with a cero, even a glancing hit, _hurt_; more than he'd like to admit.

"Itsugo!" Nell had dropped down into the room and now ran towards him. Ichigo glanced back at her, offering a vague smile when he noted her worried expression. "Itsugo! I thought you wath gunna _die_, Itsugo!" she wailed.

The grim realization hit him that unless he did something fast, he was about to receive another painful tackle-hug. Swiftly, he took several steps to the side, trying to dodge. "I'm fine!" he yelled out as further possible incentive for her to stop.

"I ith tho happy you'th okay!" Nell cried, abruptly changing direction to continue after him with tears running down her face and arms outstretched. "Tho happy!"

"S-stop!" Ichigo called frantically, ducking around her a few more times before going so far as to jump _over_ her as she neared him again. "Nell, please! I'm okay! You don't have to tackle—Oof!" Just as his feet touched the floor again, she hit him from behind, knocking him onto his face and clutching him tightly around the neck, still sobbing messily.

Wincing as she applied direct pressure to the burn on his shoulder, Ichigo rolled onto his side, reaching up to pry the girls arms from his windpipe. "Can't... Breathe!" he got out eventually.

Nell only clung tighter. "Thooooo happy you'th okay, Itsugo!"

"I won't be if you don't get off!"

Lisa let out a snort of laughter from somewhere beyond his range of sight, and Ichigo irritably sent out a silent wish for her to go die and rot somewhere for not helping him out of this.

Finally, Ichigo succeeded in peeling a hand off of his neck, and from there he could swing the girl around and land her in his lap instead of on his back. She quickly recovered, latching her arms around his midsection, but that was far better than her previous location. The orange-haired teen breathed a sigh of relief, shooting Lisa a glare as she hid a smile behind her book.

"Nell, you're not going to do this _every_ time I finish fighting someone, are you?" Ichigo asked exasperatedly.

"Wanted to help you!" came the muffled response, the girl burying her face deeper into his shirt. "That meanie wouldn't let me! Thee thaid thee wanted Itsugo to jutht _die_!"

Ichigo gave her a somewhat blank look for a moment before turning a raised eyebrow on the Vaizard 'guard' in question. "Oh, really?" He'd noticed the struggle up there, but wasn't sure what had happened or why.

Rolling her eyes, Lisa sniffed derisively. "Not what I said," she informed him dryly, not even looking up from the book as she leaned back against the broken rubble of what once was a wall a few stories above him. Apparently, she wasn't going to offer any further explanation than that.

With a scowl, Ichigo returned his attention to the green-haired girl in his lap. "What do you mean, help? Nell, you wouldn't have been able to—" he cut himself off sharply, biting his lip a little. He didn't want to inadvertently hurt her feelings or anything.

Before he could revise his statement, Nell looked up at him with determination. "I can fight," she insisted. "I coulda helped Itsugo!"

Ichigo shook his head. "I, uh... I'm sure you could have, Nell," he lied uneasily. "But I was fine. Really."

Hichigo only snorted. '_You're incredibly pathetic around small children,_' he noted. Ichigo scowled, but didn't respond, instead focusing on what Nell was saying.

"But that guy hit Itsugo with a thero! I coulda _blocked_ it! I coulda..." she trailed off as her eyes widened, her gaze shooting to his shoulder. "Oh, you _ith_ hurt, Itsugo!" she wailed again. "I forgot! You _did_ get hurt!"

Quickly, Ichigo rushed to reassure her. "It's fine, nothing I can't handle. I'm oka—aaaah!" he hissed as she reached inexplicably up to grab his wounded shoulder. He jerked his arm back, but her firm grip didn't fail her as she pulled herself up to inspect the damage. "Nell, stop! Stop! What are you-?"

He stopped as the teal-haired girl let go with one hand and reached into her mouth, her eyes rolling upward. Several gruesome sounds issued forth from her, and then, "BLLLUUUEEEEEGGGHHHH!"

"UUGH!" Ichigo let out an unintentional yell of utter disgust as Nell suddenly spewed an enormous amount of yellowish-clear goo all over him. "Augh! Nell, what the? GACK!" He had to stop to spit the stuff out of his mouth, gagging.

"Feel better?" Nell chirped, sounding hopeful. "I'th got thpecial drool! It can heal! It'll make you better, Itsugo!"

Somehow, watching the 'drool' dribble down the girl's chin, Ichigo seriously doubted that. "N-Nell, that's..." he didn't even know what to say to that, so he trailed off, staring down in horror at the blob of disgusting that was now his entire upper body. "Ugh!"

Squeezing his eyes shut to block out the view only revealed Hichigo snickering at him more than ever, a sadistic grin stretching across his face. '_You see what I mean? Completely pathetic! Can't even stop a little girl from-_'

"_Shut up!_" Ichigo groaned. "_Don't _make_ me shove _you_ out here to deal with this!_"

'_Like you could,_' Hichigo returned easily, still smirking at him. '_You got puked on, you're the one who cleans it up, got it? I ain't going out there._'

Ichigo scowled. "_Jerk._"

"Thee, Itsugo? All better!" At Nell's voice, Ichigo opened his eyes again, frowning down at the girl. Better? What did she...?

Nell poked at his shoulder, brushing some of the goop out of the way. To his surprise, it didn't hurt at all; for that matter, neither did any of the small cuts he'd gotten on his chest and arms. Glancing down, he found that even the tears in his clothing at those spots had mysteriously repaired themselves.

"_Huh,_" Ichigo paused, trying to curb his disgust as he tentatively scraped a glob of the stuff off of one arm to examine it. "_It _does_ have healing properties. Like... Like an external high-speed regeneration ability._"

'_Fascinating,_' Hichigo intoned dryly, his grin widening as he shook his head. '_Now get it _off_, you moron._'

Ignoring his hollow, Ichigo turned back to the teal-haired girl who was still waiting for a response from him. "Er, thanks, Nell," he said awkwardly. "That's, uh... Probably the most disgusting method for healing I've ever seen."

Nell looked delighted to hear that. "Tho, you'th gunna be okay?" she asked excitedly.

Slowly, Ichigo nodded, still trying to wipe off as much of the 'drool' as he could. It came off surprisingly easily, but it still liked to cling to all surfaces in a way that reminded him disturbingly of a loogie going down the drain. "Um... Yeah, Nell. I guess."

Ichigo's attention was drawn upward as Lisa closed her book and jumped down into the room. "In that case, we should get moving. We've lost a lot of time already."

Scowling, Ichigo pulled himself to his feet, setting Nell aside. "Yeah, yeah, give me a minute to get this stuff off." As he continued to peel, he started walking towards his fallen opponent, who still hadn't moved.

Lisa watched him suspiciously. "What are you doing?"

Ichigo pretended not to hear her, instead crouching down and checking Dordonii's pulse. The devil-haired man's heartbeat seemed fairly even, and he was still breathing, if a bit shallowly. The large gashes across his chest weren't bleeding, but they still looked painful, especially with the burns.

"Nell, do you think you could heal him too?" Ichigo asked without looking up, frowning at the man's injuries.

Lisa immediately protested this. "Ichigo, have you lost your mind?" she demanded.

Surprisingly, Hichigo agreed, all hints of amusement suddenly gone as he spoke up harshly. '_You don't _heal_ your enemies, you complete idiot! What are you thinking?_'

Ichigo winced a little at the hollow's tone, but he held his ground, giving Lisa a level look. "He may have been in our way, but he didn't seem like that bad of a guy. We can't just leave him here to die. Besides, maybe he can tell us where Inoue is."

Lisa scoffed, rolling her eyes. "We don't need him to tell us where your friend is," she said exasperatedly. "We should be close enough now to search out her reiatsu by ourselves. That will be more accurate than any directions an enemy would give us."

"Still, we can't just leave him here," Ichigo argued.

"Why not?" Lisa narrowed her eyes at him. "You can't possibly be trying to _befriend_ him, can you? He's not going to help us; we've seen that already."

She started to go on, but Ichigo interrupted, eyes flashing in annoyance. "He's down, and he's not going to try going after us anymore once we move on. We don't need to kill him to complete our mission here, and it won't take much for us to heal him."

Abruptly, Lisa went quiet, watching him carefully. Ichigo merely returned her gaze, as though daring her to argue with him.

"You're still a child," she finally told him derisively, turning away. "You cannot avoid killing every time, you know."

Ichigo's scowl deepened as memories of past battles flashed through his mind, his last fight with the Bount leader, Kariya, in particular. "You think I don't know that? I've had to kill before," he snapped. Admitting that put a hard lump in the pit of his stomach, but he continued despite it. "However, that doesn't mean that I shouldn't try to save someone's life if I can. Nell, please..."

But as he turned around, he found that the Arrancar girl had already made it to Dordonii and had reached her hand into her mouth a second time. Ichigo barely managed to look away in time, his stomach turning as the sounds of puking filled the room again.

"You are far too naïve," Lisa informed him once Nell was done. She shook her head, muttering to herself in a low voice. "Who ever heard of healing the enemy for no reason?"

Ichigo snorted, irritably returning back to his shikai so that he could sheath Zangetsu and replace it on his back. "If being a decent person makes me 'naïve,' then maybe I don't want to be anything else," he shot at her.

"Me, too!" Nell added stubbornly, using a sleeve to wipe her face defiantly. "I wanna be nah-eeve like Itsugo!"

The orange-haired Shinigami gave the girl an odd look. "You don't even know what that means, do you?"

"Nope!"

Lisa just rolled her eyes. "I really don't care if you choose to be a moron or not," she informed him disinterestedly. "I'm not the one who will have to deal with the disappointment when you finally figure out that sometimes things _don't_ work out the way you want them to, no matter how much effort you put into it."

Ichigo wasn't sure exactly what that had to do with healing his enemies, but he didn't care; the Vaizard's tone irritated him. "If you don't care, then shut up and quit bugging me about it."

"Let's just go." Lisa began taking long strides towards another corridor leading away from the room they were in, pulling her book back out of her bag as she did so. "Before he wakes up and attacks us again."

Glancing sidelong at the 'drool'-covered Arrancar, Ichigo noted that he was, in fact, beginning to stir, and had to admit that—in _that_ aspect, at any rate—Lisa was right. Time to get moving.

Grumbling, he stalked after her, stopping only briefly to accommodate Nell's attempts to climb up onto his back to ride a la Yachiru-and-Kenpachi. The accompanying mental image of himself wearing an eye patch, his bright orange hair styled into tall spikes, with a cheerful Nell on his shoulder sucking on a lollipop of some sort forced the scowl from his face for a brief instant. But only a brief one.

Hurriedly, the three of them left the room, continuing to move forward.

If he concentrated hard enough, he found that he could, in fact, sense Inoue somewhere far off in the direction they were now moving. The signature held strongly, even despite being faint from distance, and he could only hope that meant that she was still alright. If she wasn't...

"We're almost there, Inoue," he murmured quietly to himself, not seeing Nell's questioning glance at the words. "We'll find you. I promise."

* * *

Man, this chapter didn't have very much Hichigo in it. Sorry about that. Next chapter will have plenty of him, don't worry. And stuff from Rukia, too.

Hmm... I think this is also the first chapter I've had in a while where Hichigo's name didn't get made fun of... That's no good. I'll have to remedy that. (Points and laughs at Hichigo)

I'm sure you all know what happens next in the timeline, here. Think they're ready to take on Ulquiorra? (evil laugh)

Yeah, definitely _plenty_ of stuff happening next chapter. Hope you all can stand to wait for it! I apologize once again for my horrible update times!

Doesn't help that I can't work on Day Before Tomorrow and Feeling Hollow at the same time... The two Ichigos in those stories are like polar opposites of each other, especially when it comes to their opinions of Shiro. If I tried to write them both at the same time, my head would rip in half. Sorry...

Anyway. Day Before Tomorrow will be the next thing to update. I'm already a good ways into the chapter at the time of this posting, so it shouldn't take _too_ horribly long. (By that, I mean a couple of weeks, as opposed to a year. Eh heh...)

Thanks so much for continuing to support me in this story! And many thanks to Obi-Quiet for _everything_ that she does to keep Feeling Hollow going!

And now, it's time to make over a thousand people receive an e-mail informing them that this has updated. (Holy cow, guys! That's a lot of alerts and favorites! THANK YOU!)

=D Don't forget to leave a review! See you next time!

-Daricio


	7. Two Men Burning

Hello, everyone!

Sorry again for long update times. I know that the huge gaps between updates turn a lot of people off to my stories, so thanks to those of you who put up with me anyway.

Just to give fair warning, I plan to give Feeling Hollow a solid ending soon. Probably next chapter or so. Sorry to say, but all good things come to an end, I suppose, and I'm not about to let this simply trail off into obscurity. It will have a good end, I promise (Well, I hope you'll like it, anyway).

And an apology in advance, this is kind of a short chapter. Sorry about that.

Another note: I got tired of swapping between " and ' for Ichigo and Hichigo's dialogue, especially since it really was completely pointless to do so anyway, so now I'm using " for both of them.

A big thank you to Shells, who actually wrote some parts of this for me, trying to get me to feel up to writing again. (hug) And thanks to Obi for betaing for me.

So, last time, we left off with the end of Ichigo's fight with Dordonii. Now we're on to some far more interesting events. Off we go!

* * *

Every inch of Rukia's body had frozen over, covered with a shock as thick as any ice that Sode no Shirayuki had ever danced with. She stared up at the man standing on the ledge above her. The man who had died all those years ago. The man she had...

"Kaien-dono." His name slipped from her lips with the strain of disbelief. "Is it... is it really...?"

"Yeah, it's me." He smiled easily at her, raising a hand in greeting. "Yo, Kuchiki. Long time no see, eh?"

He had dressed in a bizarre fashion, with a ruffle-collared coat that flowed to his knees and a dress robe that fell to his ankles—all a meticulous white—and he wore a gentleman's glove on his left hand. The clothes were different...

But that face—that voice!—was undeniably her former mentor, Shiba Kaien.

"H-how?" she managed to get out, taking a step towards him without thinking.

Kaien simply gave her a funny expression, face in a scowl that looked almost like he was about to stick his tongue out at her. "Heeey, what's that look for? Come on, aren't you glad to see me?"

Without waiting for her response, he jumped down to her level and began walking to a side wall of the room. Rukia's gaze followed him as he mumbled to himself, scrounging for something in a hidden cupboard.

It really was him. She had no idea how, but it was him. The playful warmth that emanated from him, even when he frowned at her... She couldn't deny it.

When Kaien finally turned back to her, he snorted in laughter at her obvious confusion, pulling from the compartment several big cushions he'd found. "Come on, Kuchiki. We've got a lot to talk about," he said, tossing her one of them.

For a long moment, she could only stare at him as he dropped the other pillow on the floor and let himself flop down onto it, grinning up at her. Then, a measure of hope beginning to spark in her chest, she eagerly followed suit with about a million questions bubbling through her mind.

Still snickering, Kaien started talking before she could even open her mouth, carefully explaining to her the events that had transpired that fateful night.

Most of what he said blurred in her mind as she tried to grasp that he had even survived at all, much less that he'd somehow managed to become the dominant personality of the hollow he'd become a part of. Or that he'd managed to get an Espada position in an attempt to foil Aizen's plans from the inside.

"I'm glad," she whispered, almost to herself, her fingers clenched tightly into the fabric of her hakama as she knelt. She couldn't quite bring herself to tear her eyes from her hands as she spoke softly, voice choked with emotion. "So glad that you're alive."

"Still can't get over that, huh?" Kaien joked, shoving his hand on the top of her head, the way he'd always do before. The gesture sent a warmth of joy through her entire being as it confirmed for her even more that he was really _here_. "Yeah, I am, which isn't as easy as it seems. Hiding out here has been a big pain, not to mention being partly hollow."

Slowly, Rukia nodded, still not looking up at him. "I know," she said softly, her thoughts turning to Ichigo and his own hollow problems. "I can't even imagine. But being alive, and being in control of yourself..." _Like Ichigo still is_, she thought. "Well, it's better than not, and I'm glad. And you've done so much in the time you've been here, getting to be the ninth Espada and everything. I can't believe you're-"

He cut into her rambling with a snort and ruffled her hair roughly. "Geez, you have to be so serious about it! That look on your face! Honestly!"

Choking slightly in surprise, she finally glared at him, smoothing her hair with both hands. "What? It's a serious topic! Why shouldn't I be serious?"

Kaien just grinned at her. "Come on. The situation is what it is, and so we work with what we've got, right? Speaking of which, wanna hear my plan for taking down Aizen? It involves you, too."

Rukia couldn't help the instinctive smile that came from seeing his enthusiastic expression. "Yes! How can I help?"

"Great!" Without further warning, Kaien got to his feet, tossing the cushion off to one side of the room. "First, let's relocate. We're still too close to that fake blue sky of Aizen's. He uses the light from that sky to spy on us, you know."

Rukia blinked in mild surprise at that new fact. "Really? Alright." She hurried to her feet, almost forgetting her Kuchiki grace as she followed closely behind him.

Suddenly, movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention, and she instinctively flinched away, twisting to avoid a sword's sharp blade as it came down at her head. It nicked her cheek, but she managed to get away before it could do any further damage. She stood tensely, looking around in an attempt to locate her attacker.

Surprisingly, Kaien stood facing her, sword drawn, expression cold and uncaring.

Then the look evaporated and he grinned at her again, even as her blood dripped from the tip of his blade. "Oh? Very nice! You wouldn't have been able to avoid that thrust the last time I saw you! You've been improving, Kuchiki!"

The ice of shock had crept back into Rukia's veins, and now she had a hard time forcing it to thaw. Kaien had attacked her. Seriously attacked her. But... why?

His smile turned sheepishly lopsided as he gave her an over-exaggerated shrug. "Oi, oi, what's with that look? Sorry, but I had to make sure that you could handle the mission I'm about to give you. Besides, it's always a mentor's biggest joy to see their students make such improvements. I'm proud of you."

Eyes still full of worry, Rukia tried to make herself relax. "I... I see..." The words of praise were reassuring, but somehow, she couldn't quite make herself trust them, the image of that horrible expression locked into her mind. "How... much of what you just said was true?" she asked tightly.

He never stopped smiling at her. "True? All of it. What, do you doubt me? Do you think that my attacking you is out of the ordinary? That it's something I'd 'never do'?"

Rukia couldn't answer that aloud, her mouth suddenly dry. Yes, that was, in fact, exactly what she'd been thinking. Had merging with the hollow that night somehow... altered his personality? Made him more aggressive, perhaps? But Ichigo's personality hadn't changed at all. A thousand theories buzzed in her head, drowning one another out in her confusion.

"Think about it," Kaien said slowly. He pointed up at his own chest. "I am Shiba Kaien, former vice captain of 13th division. My spirit body was merged with a hollow and I was forced to Hueco Mundo."

His pointing finger moved to indicate her. "And you." His voice remained light and his grin remained in place. "You are the woman who killed me with her own hands."

Kaien might as well have run her through with his blade and twisted it. The cold accusation rang in the empty air as she stared at him in shock and dismay.

Then, she slumped, her head bowing down to acknowledge the sheer, utter truth of it. Guilt and shame pressed down on her like a physical force. "I... thought that..."

"That I was happy like this?" Kaien's tone finally turned serious. "That I liked living here? That I wanted you to do this to me?"

She swallowed hard. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm so sorry. I should have been stronger, Kaien-dono..."

Kaien stepped closer to her, and the tip of his sword entered her vision down by her knees. "Then, are you willing to die by my hand, Kuchiki? To atone for what you've done?"

Her head bowed lower, her chin on her chest, and her eyes slowly closed. This was all her fault, all her own weakness. She had killed him. She had sent him to this horrible place, condemned him to this existence which he hated so much. Her death by his hand would only be justified. And both of them knew it.

But as she opened her mouth to say so, another image came to her mind: one of Ichigo holding out his hollow mask to her, explaining to all of them just what had been going on for the last month with his training.

She suspected Ichigo's problems with his hollow were different from Kaien's, since Ichigo's inner hollow was a part of himself while Kaien had been merged with an outside hollow, but they'd still come about because of Rukia. If he hadn't gone to Soul Society to rescue her, he wouldn't have undergone Urahara's training and so wouldn't have ended up with an inner hollow in the first place. But he'd chosen to deal with his hollow powers, albeit differently than any of them had anticipated, but he hadn't just given up.

And he'd never once blamed her for any of the terrible things that had happened to him—had never let her blame herself. Ichigo just wasn't that kind of person.

Neither was Kaien.

Hadn't he _just_ said to her to work with the situation they had?

Conflicted, she forced herself to look up at him, eyes still full of grief. "Why?" She could only whisper her question, barely able to meet his cold gaze. "I know I was weak, but why does killing me have to be the answer?" She would gladly give her life for him if he seriously asked for it, but she still had so much more she could offer him; so much more she could do to atone for her sin.

For a long moment, he simply stared down at her, looking almost taken aback. Then, he lifted both hands up in the air in a gesture of surrender. "I was just joking! Geez, you have no sense of humor! Seriously! Why would I take your life for something as simple as that?"

Rukia's breath caught in her throat again. "Just... joking?"

"Of course!" Kaien shook his head with a large sigh, running his gloved hand through his hair and sheathing his sword. "Besides, I told you I had something important for you to do, remember?"

Slowly, Rukia forced herself to straighten again, trying to stay strong even as unshed tears continued to burn at the back of her eyes, threatening to fall and ruin her composure. Just joking... about something like that? Something was very wrong here.

"If you want," Kaien continued, his usual grin back in place as he reached out to ruffle her hair again, "you can think of it like atoning for killing me."

Ichigo had never blamed her. Kaien would never have wanted her to blame herself, hard as that was to admit for her. Why did he keep phrasing it that way?

"What do you need me to do?" she asked, forcing herself to be serious rather than let herself dwell on uncertainties.

He smiled at her, his hand still resting lightly on the top of her head. "I need you to bring me the heads of each of your friends."

That was more than enough to confirm her many doubts. "You aren't him anymore," she hissed out, starting to back away from him.

He tried to stop her. "Hey, what? What are you talking about, I'm not...? Of course I'm Shiba Kai-"

"Don't you dare say that name again!" Rukia knocked his hand away from her, going for her sword.

"Kuchiki, what are you-"

She leveled Sode no Shirayuki at him. "I'd thought at first that you'd become something similar to what Ichigo has become. That you had to deal with similar problems as he has, and that maybe you'd just dealt with them the way we'd all assumed Ichigo had: by defeating the hollow inside."

Once more, the not-Kaien tried to interrupt, his expression hurt. "Kuchi-"

Rukia shook her head. "But I understand now what truly happened that night. Kaien-dono is different from Ichigo because Ichigo is still in there. He still has control. Kaien-dono was also merged with a hollow, but it consumed him. _You_ consumed him."

An angry fire had lit her eyes now, filling them with confidence and a sense of duty. "You may have his body and his memories, but you no longer have his mind... or his heart."

That conclusion made, Rukia leapt to attack. "Dance, Sode no Shirayuki!"

* * *

Somewhere in the vast emptiness of Las Noches, a distinctive reiatsu flared high for a brief instant before dropping sharply down to near nothing. Ichigo tried not to react outwardly to the fall of his best friend, continuing to run forward down the endless hallway, but found himself unable to keep from gritting his teeth. "Chad..."

Beside him, Lisa nodded solemnly. "Feels like he ran into a powerful opponent. Probably an Espada."

"He had two fights," Ichigo clarified tightly, and Nell turned to give him a concerned look from her place on his shoulder. "He finished his first fight with someone of about Dordonii's level, and then he was ambushed by someone else."

A little surprised, Lisa frowned at him. "I didn't think you were paying attention to your friends' fights. Or that you had a good enough reiatsu sense to tell something like that."

Ichigo didn't answer, ignoring the bash against his skills and keeping his gaze forward as he focused back on his friend. He'd only been paying attention to Chad's reiatsu since he'd noticed the first battle in progress a short while back, but Lisa didn't need to know that. Knowing her, she'd find some way to turn either his attention span or his concern for his friends into some sort of insult.

And his hollow would turn it all into some sort of joke. Already, he could actually see Hichigo in his inner mind smirking at something. "_Alright, what?_"

"_It's always Chad, isn't it?_" the hollow grinned at him. "_First while rescuing Rukia, and now this. It's like he's got a target printed on his back: Kill me first!_"

"_That's not funny,_" Ichigo said automatically, not really paying attention. Chad's reiatsu still flickered faintly, so he hadn't been killed, but he had definitely been gravely injured.

Hichigo laughed. "_You act as though I _want_ this stuff to happen to him. I hope he pulls through, too. I'm just not gunna sit around moping about it like you do._"

Distracted, Ichigo made a vague noise of acknowledgement, still watching his friend's condition as he ran down the hallway.

"I suppose you want to stop everything to go help him," Lisa guessed dryly, giving him an irritated look.

Pushing away his desire to do just that, Ichigo scowled back. "No. We're here to rescue Inoue, and we knew the risks of splitting up. And besides, Chad can take care of himself. We have to keep moving forward, no matter how painful it is."

"Yeah!" Nell agreed with determination, pumping a fist in the air. "Keep moving forward! We'th can do it, Itsugo!" Ichigo gave her a brief half-smirk before watching for Lisa's reaction.

The black-haired woman stared at him in mild surprise for a moment, but then she shrugged. "Good. Let's take this path." She then proceeded to tune him out, facing forward as they ran, her usual unimpressed expression on her face.

Ichigo just rolled his eyes. "Can't ever please her, can I?"

To his vague amusement, Nell stuck her tongue out at the Vaizard for good measure. Lisa gave no indication that she noticed the gesture.

With a sigh, Ichigo returned his attention to Chad, trying to analyze the faint signature to determine his condition. Reiatsu sensing never had been his strong point even with his recent training with his hollow, and he struggled with making sense of it all.

Unable to tell much more than he'd already figured out, he did a quick sweep of the area, pulling his own reiatsu in tightly to keep it out of the way. On either side of him, barely in his range of sensing, Rukia and Renji each fought with powerful opponents, their reiatsu surging high. He couldn't tell where Ishida was anymore, which didn't bode well. The Quincy had gone the opposite direction from him, though, so he'd probably just gone out of range. Probably.

Ahead of him, a vaguely familiar signature seemed to be waiting for them, and Ichigo's scowl grew more pronounced. Their new opponent stood directly between him and where he could sense Inoue—probably a deliberate move. There'd be no avoiding this fight.

"_Not that we're trying to avoid fights here,_" Hichigo put in with a sadistic grin.

Ichigo let out a small snort. "_Of course not. Your turn, right?_" He still couldn't quite believe he'd agreed to that, but it was only fair, since he'd gotten the entire last fight to himself. Hichigo's grin only widened in response.

The corridor in front of them opened up into a wide room with a huge staircase on the opposite side leading up to somewhere bright. At the top stood a thin figure, staring down at them impassively.

Lisa's steps slowed to a halt, and Ichigo stopped as well. The man above began to descend.

"Kurosaki Ichigo and Yadomaru Lisa," he greeted the two of them flatly, apparently ignoring Nell's existence. His stare tried to bore holes through Ichigo's, as though searching for something.

Slowly and deliberately, Ichigo reached up and pulled Nell off of his shoulder, setting her gently on the ground without releasing the enemy Arrancar's gaze. "Ulquiorra," he returned.

"You remember my name," Ulquiorra stated without inflection, "though I do not remember giving it."

Ichigo decided not to answer that. "You're here to stop me from getting to Inoue, I assume?"

"Of course," the Espada returned. "Though I suspect that you will refuse to stop."

The orange-haired Shinigami smirked. "Oh, I'll stop," he quipped. "I'll stop, kick your butt, and then keep going."

"I see." Ulquiorra paused as he reached the bottom of the stairs, both hands still in his pockets. He appeared to be waiting for Ichigo to make the first move.

Ichigo glanced over his shoulder at his Vaizard guard. "Nell, stay back with Lisa," he instructed her confidently, reaching up to grab Zangetsu's hilt. The girl didn't look pleased about that, but she backed out of harm's way. "Lisa, just to warn you, this one is Hichigo's fight."

Taking the cue, Hichigo stepped forward and finished for him, unsheathing the blade himself. "So don't interfere, got it?" he cackled, mask beginning to appear across his face. With that, he lunged at Ulquiorra, shooting off a small Getsuga mid-air.

The Arrancar didn't even bat an eye as he lazily brought one hand up to flick the energy blast away, and then easily sidestepped the next few swings of the sword that came down at his head.

Hichigo kept up his sudden barrage for several minutes, but somehow never managed to get in a hit, his opponent matching every move he made with a speed that made the hollow's grin widen with anticipation. Twisting around to attack from yet another angle, he pushed reiatsu through Zangetsu to power up a stronger Getsuga, calling out the name as he swung.

Ulquiorra simply moved aside once again, his left hand still in his pocket as he watched Hichigo's moves with a bored, yet critical air.

The orange-haired hollow continued to laugh as he attacked, but Ichigo could feel the thrill of battle in him fading to frustration as his opponent refused to fight back, merely ducking around and occasionally batting aside another attack with the hand he had free.

Finally, Hichigo had enough, sending another Getsuga at Ulquiorra's face with a growl before sliding to a halt several meters back. "Oi, what's your problem?" he complained with a swipe of his hand through the air. "Do you wanna fight, or not? Show me your strength!"

Ulquiorra simply stared impassively at him for a moment before speaking in a level, almost bored tone. "You have not as yet proven yourself powerful enough for me to even bother drawing my sword."

That statement was enough to tick off both Ichigo and his hollow at once. Hichigo gave the Arrancar a tight grin, holding Zangetsu out level to the ground and letting the hilt wrap twist around his upper arm. "Che. Is that so?" Reiatsu swirled madly through the air. "Bankai. Tensa Zangetsu."

In an instant, he was in the air again, shoving spirit energy into his now-condensed blade for a stronger Getsuga. Red and black energy whipped down at Ulquiorra, only to be brushed off by a single hand. By the time it cleared away, five more were in the air from different directions, and Hichigo had yet another on the way.

The added speed still didn't seem to affect the Arrancar much, and he continued to keep pace with each blow without once giving an offensive strike himself. Ulquiorra's other hand remained firmly in his pocket.

And then Rukia's spirit energy abruptly dropped to nothing.

Unfazed, Hichigo followed through with his attack and raised Zangetsu for another. "_Wait!_" Ichigo mentally shouted, a growing cold clenching his soul with horror. He could sense the hole where he had previously felt his friend's presence. He had to help! He had to-

His hollow gave only a vague acknowledgement to Ichigo's sudden cry while the latest energy beam split to either side of Ulquiorra's single, upraised hand, leaving the Arrancar once more unscathed. Dust pooled from the shattered pillars behind, temporarily obscuring the enemy from view. Hichigo landed only long enough to propel himself once more into the air to launch his next attack.

"_I'm busy!_" he got out as he brought Zangetsu's blade down in a wild twist towards the center of the smoke where he knew Ulquiorra stood. "_What exactly do you want me to do about it?_"

Ichigo sputtered for a moment, mind flailing for ideas. "_L-Lisa! Get her to-!_"

Before Ichigo could even finish, the hollow grudgingly complied, rolling his eyes slightly as he glanced over at the battle's two spectators. "Yo, Lisa! You're not doing anything useful down there! Get your butt moving and go help Rukia, got it?" He fired off another few Getsugas as he shouted. "And take Drool-face with you!"

Lisa's eyes narrowed at him as she put a finger to the nose of her glasses, adjusting them as she considered his request, looking very close to denying it.

From her place at the Vaizard's side, Nell took an involuntary step forward, mouth opened in horror at the prospect of leaving. "But Nell wantth to thtay and help Hitsugo!" she cried back.

With an exasperated sigh, Hichigo finally turned from the battle, and in an instant, he stood in front of Nell, lifting her off the ground in one smooth motion by the front of her ragged shirt to bring her face to face with him. Her eyes widened in shock at his speed and at the suddenly serious look on his face.

"Look," he said darkly. "You sticking around here sitting on your thumbs while you watch me fight isn't doing anyone any good. If you really wanna help me, go help my friend. We'll catch up later, got it?"

Looking almost frightened, Nell nodded, and Hichigo's customary crazy grin slid back into place. "Good."

With that, he let Nell drop to the ground with a soft thump. Before she could properly recover, the hollow let out a wild laugh as he jumped back into the air, powering up yet another Getsuga Tenshou.

Ulquiorra hadn't moved since his opponent had stopped, but the sudden return of the barrage of attacks still didn't seem to faze him at all as he went right back to shoving energy blasts out of the way, looking, if anything, even more unimpressed than before.

Out of the corner of his eye, Hichigo noted Nell finally scrambling to her feet again, running over to where Lisa stood and tugging at her hand. "Come on! You heard Hitsugo! Nell hath to help him!"

Lisa, strangely enough, had been giving the hollow a disturbed, contemplative look, one that faded slowly to a resigned understanding as she glanced down at the small child by her feet. "His friend, huh?" she murmured to herself.

Then, without another word, she scooped Nell up into her arms and took off through a side hallway in the general direction of the place Rukia's reiatsu had last come from.

If Ichigo had still been in control of his body, he might have stared after Lisa in surprise for a moment. "_Wow. I didn't actually expect her to go. I thought she was only here to 'guard' us._"

Hichigo didn't bother to spare the time to shrug, instead focusing back on the battle again, a better strategy for attack forming in his mind. Obviously, increasing the volume of the barrage didn't have any effect on the Arrancar's ability to bat them away, so he'd have to instead increase the power behind each one. Something he could do quite easily at this point. Ulquiorra wouldn't know what hit him.

Piling as much spirit energy into Zangetsu as he possibly could, he ran at the Arrancar, red and black light flowing around his body to pool into the blade. Leaping into the air, he flicked the blade around, sending a giant crescent wave almost the size of the room straight towards Ulquiorra.

"Getsuga Tenshou!"

One hand lifted to stop it. The moment it hit, Ulquiorra flew backwards, feet sliding against the floor as the immense pressure began to collapse the entire structure of the room around him. Through the strain, Ulquiorra finally had to take his other hand out of his pocket, pushing against the blast for several seconds before the light consumed his form completely.

Dust and shreds of remaining spirit energy filtered through the air. Hichigo landed on the ground and held Zangetsu to the side. Not waiting for the smoke to settle, he jumped back up with a triumphant laugh. "Getsuga Tenshou!" He wasn't taking any chances with this guy.

The second wave sliced through the center of the cloud, leaving a clear space for the split second before it slammed into the ground, sending the dust exploding even further outward. Hichigo drew back his sword for a third attack.

Then, suddenly, another cut swiped through the debris from the other side, clearing the air between them in an instant. Ulquiorra stood with sword unsheathed, white uniform somewhat torn and ragged at the edges, but face still as impassive as ever. "Is that your strongest attack?" he asked, sounding almost disappointed. "Unfortunate."

Ichigo swore mentally as Hichigo surveyed the damage—or lack thereof. "_I don't think we even scratched him! What is he _made_ out of?_"

Hichigo's grin just widened even further. "_We got him to draw his sword,_" he said hungrily. With that, he leapt back into action, releasing the Getsuga he'd already powered up and using his sonido to flash step across the room.

The Arrancar easily followed him. In a moment, he had his free hand held up to the hollow's chest, charging a strangely green colored cero at the tip of his finger. Hichigo twisted aside barely in time, reflexively swinging Zangetsu at his opponent and shooting off a weak Getsuga as the cero went off right by his ear. A nearby wall crumbled away, revealing a bright, sunny area.

Ulquiorra merely cut through the hastily-made energy attack with his sword, face still bland as ever as he jumped up over Hichigo's counterattack, flipping upside-down and pointing another cero at him.

Hichigo laughed insanely as he moved, suddenly pushed to his limits by Ulquiorra's unrelenting attacks. He barely had time to think before the next blow came and had no idea where it would come from when it did.

"_He moves so fast!_" Ichigo exclaimed, itching to be the one in control, feeling tense. "_And yet every one of his moves is so deliberate, as though this is his _slowest_ speed! I'd get out of there; he's too fast for us!_"

With a snort, Hichigo slammed another Getsuga in Ulquiorra's general direction as he ducked around the sword edge that came way too close to his skin for comfort. "_You're crazy if you think I'll run!_" he yelled with exhilaration. "_I've almost figured out his moves! Just one more-_"

And then Ulquiorra was directly in front of him, seeming once again to be moving in slow motion even as his cero came too quickly to dodge. Hichigo's eyes widened as the green blast of energy filled his vision, and then the blow knocked him backwards fiercely.

Twisting around, Hichigo scrambled to regain his footing as pillars flew by him at high speeds, but the room's far wall loomed up before he could, and he slammed into it with a grunt. Cracks spread through the concrete in a spider web pattern, and then large chunks fell down onto him.

Hichigo pushed himself to his feet, using Zangetsu as a crutch as his gaze went back to the spot across the room where he'd last seen Ulquiorra. The Arrancar hadn't waited for him; the room seemed empty for one long, ominous moment.

A pale white hand closed on his shoulder, jerking him around to face Ulquiorra again, and two fingers from the Arrancar's other hand rested on his collar bone, just below the throat. Ulquiorra's deep green eyes still wouldn't reveal even the barest hint of emotion as he spoke quietly. "Cero."

Green light and burning pain overtook him. Slowly, he fell to his knees, swaying as he struggled to remain upright. One hand reached up in an attempt to rest on the gaping hole that was now his chest.

He couldn't breathe. Couldn't even try. Nothing would move as fire crawled through organs that had just been ripped free from his body.

And despite his struggles, he began to fall.

"_No!_" Ichigo pushed past and snatched up control, wincing as he also gained the direct, devastating pain. The mask on his face shattered. With great effort, he tried to push himself back up to his feet. "_I won't die like this! I won't!_"

His extremities had gone completely numb as his heart grew incapable of pumping blood to them. With a jolt that reverberated up his suddenly weak arms, his hands hit the ground, elbows shaking as they tried to support the rest of his weight. His body wouldn't respond to him anymore.

Letting out a growl, Hichigo took control back again. "_This isn't over!_" he yelled, shoving himself upward. "_This... isn't...!_"

His arms gave out, and he finally collapsed completely, sprawling onto the hard concrete with a pained groan.

Back and forth, the two traded off, each pushing until pain and exhaustion overcame them, but still nothing would move. Consciousness began to fade.

"I honestly expected more from you. How disappointing." Footsteps sounded as Ulquiorra turned and began to walk away with a faint hiss that marked his sword being sheathed. "If you still have the strength to stand, then I suggest that you leave Hueco Mundo. If not, then just lie there and die."

Both tried to look up at him; both tried to give a strangled retort. Both failed.

Darkness overcame them.

* * *

... Um... so I killed Ichigo again. I seem to do that a lot. To be fair, Ulquiorra sort of has that effect on people.

I feel that I must apologize again for the really short chapter. D= I tried to put another scene in this chapter, but this scene here was really just the obvious stopping spot. Anything further than it just drew it out anticlimactically.

Now that I have an ending planned, I think I'm going to work exclusively on this story until I get it finished. This isn't because I don't like Day Before Tomorrow—on the contrary, I actually like Day Before Tomorrow much better than Feeling Hollow. But if I finish Feeling Hollow first, maybe I'll stop getting reviews on Day Before Tomorrow telling me to update Feeling Hollow. Maybe.

Anyway, so expect another update for this story fairly soon. And by fairly soon, I mean fairly soon in terms of my usual update times, so don't get too excited by that promise...

Thanks again for continuing to put up with me and my slow writing. Hope you liked the chapter!

-Daricio


	8. Rise from the Ashes

Hello again!

Wow, I updated this in only a little over a month! =D Yay!

So, remember how I said I had an end planned for this story? Obi and Shells ruined that by telling me all the reasons why ending it in the spot I'd planned would be a horrible, no good, very bad thing. Well, then. I guess you guys win: the story has to be longer than I'd originally planned before I can end it.

Unfortunately, with my planned ending shot out of the water, I'm actually not sure where to end this story. So, um, I guess we'll see where it goes.

Which, really, is pretty much all I've ever done with this story, so I guess it won't be too much different than usual.

Anyway, on to the story.

* * *

"BLUUUUEEEEGGHHHH!"

"Nell," Lisa pushed the child away from the unconscious Shinigami, causing her to trail a thick line of drool across the length of Rukia's frozen body. "Not yet, she's covered in ice. And now goo, thanks to you."

"Nell wantth to help!" the green-haired Arrancar protested, trying to scramble back over Rukia's legs to get to her head. "Nell hath to—whaa!" She slipped on a particularly slick patch of frozen hakama and landed on her face.

Lisa took the opportunity to slide the drool-emitting girl further away. "There's ice between you and her," she explained distractedly, turning to look over the Shinigami as best as she could without being able to move her. "You're just making everything sticky. Hang on."

Rukia had obviously tried to crawl away from the scene of the battle after it had finished before collapsing on her stomach and somehow freezing herself to the floor, along with just about everything else in the room. While that was somewhat annoying to deal with—and potentially life-threatening in and of itself—it had probably been the best way she could think of to stop herself from bleeding to death, considering the deep puncture wounds in her back.

Still, that was a lot better than Lisa had expected; she'd feared that nothing would be left here but a fight with the one who had killed Ichigo's friend. Finding that Rukia had not only survived but actually defeated her opponent before going down was a much better outcome than she'd have betted on.

Murmuring under her breath, Lisa recited the incantation for the shot of red fire, holding the kidou in her hands instead of shooting it off. As she'd hoped, it produced enough heat to begin melting the ice around the girl.

"Nell, as soon as you can see blood beginning to flow again, that's when I'll need your healing," she instructed calmly. "And not before, or you'll put out my fire."

Immediately, the green-haired girl jumped to attention, watching the Shinigami earnestly. An almost feral look took over her face as she waited to jump in and help at the sign Lisa had given.

Soon, the wound on Rukia's back had been exposed. "Now."

"BLLLUUUUEEEEGGHHH!"

Lisa moved her makeshift kidou heater out of the way as the girl splattered clear goo all over the place a second time, and then went to carefully melting the ice on Rukia's hands and face.

The skin remained blotchy, with harsh reds and whites wherever the ice had touched. With a frown, Lisa doused her flame and began trying to rub warmth back into them. Nell enthusiastically did the same, trying her best to help.

Finally, the Shinigami girl gave a response, groaning lightly and trying to shift her position. Lisa held her down gently. "Don't try to move yet. You're still mostly frozen to the floor, and moving will only aggravate your injuries."

"W-where...?" Rukia's voice shook as her teeth chattered.

"Still in Las Noches, in Hueco Mundo," Lisa answered for her, before creating a new kidou ball to melt the ice around her legs. "You just won a fight, I believe, before you passed out."

Rukia tried once more to push herself up but, wincing in pain, had to drop to the floor again. More slowly, she moved her head to look around her, eyes still bleary as they landed on Lisa and her small companion. "You two... W-where... is Ichigo?"

Nell's eyes were wide as she threw her hands up in the air to indicate a huge space above her. "Hitsugo'th back fightin a reeeally thcary guy! I'th helping him!"

At that, Rukia's eyes closed as she searched for her friend's reiatsu. Lisa finished melting as much ice as she could and started in on a healing kidou to work in tandem with Nell's goop. "He sent us to go help you," she explained tersely.

"We wath in the way," Nell added helpfully. "Tho now we ithn't, and we'th helping you!"

Lisa raised an eyebrow at the small child at her wording. She hadn't realized that Nell had been able to pick up on that fact.

Rukia's brows furrowed in concern. "Who is he fighting?" she asked, her voice still weak but gaining strength.

"An Espada named Ulquiorra," Lisa answered, still focused on her kidou. "I suspect that the battle won't go very well, to be honest."

In alarm, Rukia's eyes fluttered open again, and she turned to face Lisa with concern. "What do you mean, won't go well? Why are you here with me if Ichigo needs help?"

"We wath in the way," Nell repeated.

Lisa shook her head. "I would not help him even if I were there. Ulquiorra is a strong opponent. I'm hoping that means Ichigo's hollow will start that battle, so that-"

Before she could finish, a wave of spiritual energy washed over them all before abruptly vanishing.

"Ichigo!" Just like that, Rukia was pushing herself to her feet, ignoring all of her wounds and forcing herself to stand. With a light cry of protest, Lisa reached out to stop her.

"You shouldn't be moving yet! Nell, get back here!"

"Itsugo!"

Rukia didn't appear to care about her own health. Sighing sharply, Lisa quickly moved to walk beside her, throwing the other girl's arm around her shoulders (and wincing as a large glob of 'drool' oozed onto her back). "At least lean on me. Come on."

Nell took off frantically ahead, and they followed as fast as Rukia's injuries would allow. The Shinigami's face was tight with worry, and Lisa could tell that she cared for Ichigo's well-being far more than she cared about her own, though she couldn't imagine why the girl would bother with him so much.

Lisa couldn't bring herself to worry too much about the orange-headed teen. He'd obviously just been struck down, but that didn't mean he was completely done for. If his hollow would start that inner battle now, then his hollowified body might actually stand a chance of survival.

At least, if he didn't die of his injuries first.

At that thought, Lisa's lips came together in a firm line. Rukia's whispered words echoed Lisa's own thoughts at that moment. "He'll be okay. He just _has_ to be."

Lisa could only nod. He did have to be, for all their sakes.

* * *

They were dying.

As the mental world began to break down around them, cracks appearing even in the sky and gouging their way through the ground, neither of them could deny that fact anymore.

When Ichigo had been turning into a hollow under Urahara's training, this world's gravity had shifted upright, and the buildings had broken into billions of white boxes. Now, though, everything seemed to be simply dissolving out from under them.

"Come on... Come on..." A fine aura of blue surrounded Ichigo as he tried desperately to hang on to his bankai, his eyes tightly shut. "No, this can't be it! Come on! Come on! No!"

As Zangetsu reverted forcibly back to its huge shikai form, Hichigo dropped down to one of the buildings with a growl, going to one knee as he reached out his hands, as though trying to hold the concrete together. As if to spite him, the building turned to dust beneath him. Strangely, he didn't fall, merely hanging suspended in the darkness that encroached on the world.

Softly, the hollow began to laugh. "Sorry, Ichigo... I figured we'd be okay, since I was using all of mine and Zangetsu's power... Guess I should have gotten away after all."

Turning to look at Zangetsu himself didn't yield any answers; the old man stood more somberly than usual—even for him—on the top of a slowly disintegrating flagpole, utterly silent as he watched their efforts.

Gritting his teeth, Ichigo flash stepped to Hichigo's side and grabbed his shoulder, the look on his face desperate. "We aren't done yet. Isn't there _anything_ we can do?"

Hichigo gave him a wry smirk. "Sure. One of our hollow powers is high-speed regeneration."

That took Ichigo aback, and he stared at the hollow in surprise. "What? Then why are we here? Use it already!"

"I don't know how." His brief look of distaste made it seem as though it were physically painful for him to admit this, but then he smirked as he explained. "Hollow powers are _instinctive_. They tend to happen on their own at first. Excuse me for never having had to _use_ this particular power before."

Ichigo reeled, partly from the information and partly because he'd started to feel light-headed even in here. "Then why didn't it activate _now_?" he demanded. "We're _dying_!"

"Why do you always expect me to know any more than you do?" the hollow shot at him with a snort of laughter. "I can't figure it out either!"

With a sharp sigh of frustration, Ichigo closed his eyes again, trying to reach out for their hollow powers himself. "Come on, there's gotta be a way..."

Hichigo protested this. "Hey, knock it off, you idiot! Those are _my_ powers you're screwing around with!"

"Well I don't see _you_ doing anything with them!"

"You don't think I'm trying? They're disappearing!"

"Wait." An idea occurred to Ichigo and he whirled on his hollow once more. "Wait! Instinctive! Lisa said that if we start fighting seriously, our body will turn full hollow, ruled by instinct! Hichigo, you just have to start that battle!"

Abruptly, Hichigo fell silent, a dark expression on his face.

The look was so out of place that Ichigo faltered for a moment. Then he scowled. "What, you don't think it'll work?"

"Oh, it will probably work," Hichigo said heavily, still gritting his teeth. "However... I'm not doing that. It's not an option."

Ichigo stared at him. "What? What are you talking about?" he gestured around the collapsing world frantically. Not much remained at that point but a few stubs of buildings and an ever-shrinking patch of ground, all descending into darkness. "In case you hadn't noticed, we are about to die! _Anything's_ an option!"

"Not that!" Hichigo insisted. "Never that!"

Ichigo had to stop at that, freezing a split second before another protest escaped his lips. "...Never?"

Hichigo's scowl deepened, and Ichigo realized his hollow hadn't meant to say that. Suddenly, things started clicking together in his mind.

* * *

_Hichigo grinned at him. "_The Vaizard were right; this place is so full of spirit energy, I don't even know what to do with it all!_"_

"Great._" Ichigo scowled, tensing up slightly. The Vaizard had also told them that his hollow might start their inner battle because of all the spirit energy available to hollows in Hueco Mundo. "_Does this mean...?_"_

_Hichigo rolled his eyes with a smirk. "_No. Just keep moving_.__"_

* * *

Ichigo had wondered why the battle hadn't begun the moment they'd entered Hueco Mundo, not to mention any time since. There'd been dozens of opportunities. The whole time he'd been here, he'd watched for it, always keeping half an eye on his hollow.

Now he knew: He'd waited for a battle that would never begin.

"You never intended to stop training me," Ichigo stated with wonder, staring curiously at his hollow. "You never wanted us to eventually fight for control. Why?"

"Shut it," Hichigo snapped. "I didn't say that."

Ichigo ignored that, mind still racing. "But if you never intended to fight for control..."

* * *

_Ichigo scowled. "So why haven't you been teaching me stuff like that, then? I mean, I know I've been working really hard on the Getsuga Tenshou stuff, but I could have been learning how to use hollow powers at the same time, right?"_

_Hichigo shook his head. "Nope! You haven't earned the use of my powers yet," he accused, laughing a little. "You can barely handle your own!"_

"_I've made huge progress so far!" Ichigo protested. "If I haven't earned them yet, what am I _supposed_ to do to earn them?"_

"_How did you earn the right to use bankai from Zangetsu?"_

_Of course. Through a final battle._

* * *

"... then you also never intended to teach me any hollow powers," Ichigo concluded. And strangely, he thought he could also see why that was. "Because as long as I don't know how to use my hollow powers, I still need you to be around to use them for me."

Hichigo glowered at him. "Don't go there, Ichigo. You won't like what you find."

Ichigo shook his head, intent on figuring this out. He'd known that his hollow had a hidden motive of some sort. He'd just never imagined it would be...

* * *

"_Even if I'm only as strong as I am because of him?" Ichigo asked Lisa seriously. "What if the two of us working together are stronger than either of us alone?"_

* * *

At the memory of his own statement, Ichigo finally turned back to Hichigo in shock. "The two of us... working together," he whispered. "_That _was what you really wanted? The entire time...?"

Hichigo couldn't meet his gaze, though another smirk appeared on his face. "What do you think... partner?"

* * *

"_If you wish to wield my powers, then take back your sword!" Zangetsu proclaimed. "Take it back... from yourself!"_

"_Yeah, take it back!" The white clone of himself gripped Zangetsu tightly, a huge grin on his face. "If you can, partner!"_

* * *

"... I was an idiot." One of Ichigo's hands lifted to find a grip in the depths of his hair. "From the very beginning... how could I have missed it?"

Hichigo shook his head. "I told you not to go there," he reprimanded. "You're only digging up old pains that should just be forgotten."

"But I was such a-!" Ichigo let out a frustrated groan at himself, unable to even come up with words to describe just how much of a jerk he'd been. "The whole time, when I assumed you were just trying to force me out of control of my body...!"

"Drop it!" Hichigo turned and smacked him. With a grin at Ichigo's shocked expression, he snickered. "It's sure not helping us now, so just _drop it_, alright?"

Ichigo's head lowered. "You'll never be able to trust me again, will you? The way I treated you before..."

Hichigo hesitated noticeably, but then reverted right back to his normal—if annoyed—self. "Would you quit it already? We're supposed to be trying to _stop dying_!"

"Hichigo..." Ichigo looked up with a determined fire in his eyes. "You may not be able to trust me... but as of right now, I'm putting _my_ trust in _you_. Don't let me down."

Suddenly, Ichigo's body began to glow with what little reiatsu he had left, and then he condensed the spirit energy to a burning ball of blue in his hands. He reached out toward his hollow, grabbing his wrist and pushing the entire ball into him.

Immediately, Hichigo started glowing with energy himself. He gave his Shinigami self a suspicious look, taking a step back. "What are you doing?"

"Each of us pushing alone wasn't enough to get us going," Ichigo explained carefully, suddenly exhausted as his knees turned to jelly beneath him. He sank to the floor. "So... so, I'm giving you everything I've got... so we can push together, and maybe activate those regeneration abilities. You'll have to be in total control, but like I said, I trust you."

Hichigo's eyes widened, and for a long moment, he simply stared at the orange-haired Shinigami now kneeling at his feet. Ichigo had no way of knowing what the hollow was thinking, but he could tell that his words had gotten through.

"You know," Hichigo said finally, glancing down at the reiatsu he held in his hands. "Hate to admit it, but you're right. Direct this energy toward activating our latent hollow powers and this will totally work."

Ichigo scowled up at him. "So go already!"

Hichigo simply smirked back in return. "But ya know... You talk too much."

"Wha-?" Before he could say anything more, Hichigo's hand met his face, connecting solidly and causing him to slide backwards several feet on his back. "Aaaaahhh—whoa!" Digging his fingers into a disintegrating building, Ichigo narrowly avoided sliding right off the edge into a dark oblivion.

Scrambling to his feet, Ichigo shook a fist in his hollow's direction. "Hey! What was _that_ for? You-!"

And then he stopped, finally noticing what his hollow had done.

Ichigo's body danced with flames once again, this time a mix of red and blue, and stronger than before. As he stared at his raised hand in disbelief, he barely noted as Hichigo turned to one side before sinking down to one knee, his dual voice sounding strained as he breathed heavily.

"Y'know, Ichigo..." the hollow laughed slightly. "I never thought I'd say this... but I guess I trust you, too... partner. Now get outta here!"

Ichigo felt he had to protest. "But you're the one who has to go! The hollow powers-"

"Are instinctive! You'll know what to do!" Hichigo grinned at him, then gestured at their dying surroundings. "Quit wasting time! Go!"

Unable to argue with that, Ichigo closed his eyes once more, a surge of new hope growing in his chest as he pushed closer and closer towards regaining consciousness. He could feel both Hichigo and old man Zangetsu pushing right along with him. They would make it this time! He could feel it!

Something inside him seemed to finally click into place, and the world around them exploded from darkness into light.

* * *

Rukia heard that they'd reached Ichigo long before she saw him for herself. Nell's anguished wailing and screaming prompted her to limp faster than before, pushing herself to her limits, but even with Lisa helping her along, it still took her achingly long to make it to the doorway of the room.

When she finally did, the sight that greeted her tore at her heart. The room lay in shambles, with pillars toppled and a huge hole blasted into the wall. In the middle of the rubble, Ichigo lay on his back, his head propped up in Nell's arms as she cried, Ichigo's zanpakutou lying in shikai form beside them. Even from the distance she stood at, Rukia could see the large hole that had been blasted all the way through her friend's chest.

"Itsugo!" Nell rocked back and forth as she clung desperately to Ichigo. "Itsugo, no! Don't die! Pleathe, _pleathe_ don't die!"

Lisa nearly picked Rukia up as she ran to Ichigo's side, though everything seemed to move in slow motion as they approached. Finally, both of them dropped to their knees beside him.

Rukia's world nearly shattered as she realized just how many vital organs had been pierced by this blast, including his heart and lungs. Ichigo's eyes were open, but no life stirred behind them. "This... I can't heal him," she whispered, not quite able to believe it. "It's too much. He's..."

"He's not gone yet," Lisa said, though her voice betrayed her uncertainties. "He still has a chance... Why hasn't he taken it yet? Why didn't he take it?"

Nell only continued her mourning, refusing to let go of Ichigo even when they tried to move her arms to check him over. "Itsugo! No!"

Feeling strangely empty inside, Rukia slowly rested a hand on the edge of the hole in his chest, the rough, burnt skin there tormenting her as though she'd been the one hit by whatever had done this. First she'd had to kill Kaien again, and now she was losing Ichigo, too?

Beside her, Lisa started a healing kidou, but the green glow only grew weaker and weaker as less and less of Ichigo remained to be healed by it. Even when Rukia added her own frail efforts to it, it didn't seem to have much effect.

Ichigo was...

Trying to get up? With a low, pained growl, Ichigo flailed, trying to get his arms underneath him. His eyes remained glassy and unseeing, but his weak reiatsu flared as high as it could go. Hurriedly, Rukia redoubled her efforts on her healing kidou, reaching out one hand to hold his shoulder firmly in place. "Don't move, Ichigo! You're-"

He acted as though he hadn't heard her at all, distractedly brushing aside her attempts at restraining him as a tortured sound tore its way from his lips—a scream that became increasingly and alarmingly hollow-sounding. Nell let out a squeal as he jerked his way free of her grasp.

Rukia instinctively flinched away as a white substance suddenly erupted from the hole in his chest, almost instantly spreading to cover his entire body in white. Lisa scrambled to her feet, a hint of a smirk on her face as she reached for her sword. "I knew it. Get ready."

Ichigo somehow managed to get up, even as his whole appearance began to shift: his bright orange hair lengthening to cascade down his back; tufts of red fur growing at his wrists, ankles, and neck; hands and feet gaining sharp claws; and on his face, a dangerous-looking mask of white and red with long, thin horns at the top. Letting out another roar, he reached out to the side and his zanpakutou—somehow in its bankai form once more—flew through the air to land solidly in his hand.

And then, everything was still.

Rukia stared at her friend, hands moving to clutch her throbbing wounds as she tried to take it all in, to understand what had just happened. Ichigo didn't move, merely staring across at the three of them. The dual tones that issued from him as he breathed heavily caused shivers to run down her spine. His reiatsu washed over them, heavy and rough, but powerful.

Beside her, Nell took a step forward towards Ichigo. "H-Hitsugo?" she asked wonderingly.

"Nell, stay back," Lisa warned, her zanpakutou leveled at the hollow that stood before them. "He's started his inner battle, and right now he's ruled by instinct. He won't hesitate to-"

A strange, echoing laugh cut through her words; one that seemed to emanate from behind that creepy, horned mask. "Actually, Nell..." the voice was layered like that of a hollow's, but light and full of relief. "It's Ichigo. Well, kind of both of us, but mostly Ichigo."

Lisa nearly dropped her sword in shock, and Nell took a running leap at Ichigo's chest. "ITSUGO!"

"No, Nell, wait-! Oof!" Ichigo took several steps back in his attempt to avoid the small child, but didn't move fast enough. She knocked him completely over onto his back.

"I mithed you, Itsugo!" Nell wailed, clinging to Ichigo's shihakushou with all her might and pressing her face into his chest. "Don't worry me like that! Not ever!"

Ichigo tried to push her away, his face unreadable due to the mask but his discomfort with the situation easily apparent. "Nell! I'm fine, get off—whoa." He stared down at his clawed hand, slowly wiggling each of his fingers. "What... the...?"

Abruptly, his hands went to his face, exploring the edges of his mask and pausing when they reached the giant horns on the top of his head. And then he discovered his hair. "G-gah! What in the world? It's-! Why?"

Rukia had to hide a smirk as Ichigo freaked out about his distinctly hollow appearance, but part of her still hesitated to believe that it was really him. She'd already been tricked once today...

She tried to shake off her suspicions and simply let herself be relieved that he was still alive. She hadn't lost him.

Besides, she reminded herself, the only other person who could be in control of Ichigo would be Hichigo. And Hichigo wasn't Aaroniero. Not by a long shot.

Lisa finally recovered from her own shock, and she went to Ichigo's side, tentatively knocking on the side of his mask. "Ichigo, what _is_ this? This isn't even the same hollow mask you had before, much less the rest of the form. I've never seen this before. How are you still in control?"

Ichigo shot her a glare, augmented in its creepiness by the mask. "Like I know! One moment we're trying to activate our high-speed regeneration abilities, and the next I'm like this! I guess we pushed too hard."

Lisa frowned at him, adjusting her glasses. "Pushed too hard... on the hollow powers? You somehow managed to over-activate them or something?"

Ichigo shrugged helplessly. "I dunno; something like that."

"Ichigo," Rukia finally got her tongue unstuck, and she asked the first question on her mind. "Are... are you stuck like that?"

At that, Ichigo stared down at his pearly white skin, his horror at the prospect nearly palpable. "Uhhh..."

"Nell liketh Itsugo like thith!" Nell declared, hugging him tighter to emphasize her point. "He'th perfect!"

As though those words were a cue, the hollow mask abruptly shattered, falling to pieces on the floor around him. With a panicked shriek, Nell tried to snatch them up, pressing them back to Ichigo's face even as they vanished completely. Ichigo looked somewhat dazed for a moment before the white all over his body seemed to concentrate itself around the hollow hole. A few seconds later, the hole had closed, and Ichigo seemed to have returned completely to normal, including the level and texture of his reiatsu.

He gave Rukia a smug smirk. "Guess not. Hichigo stopped pushing, and the hollow powers turned off."

Rukia shook her head. "Well, then I'm glad you're-"

"Put it back!" Nell cried, grabbing big fistfuls of Ichigo's shirt and trying to shake him back and forth. "That wath tho cool, Itsugo! Put it back!"

Ichigo laughed, a sound that seemed to lift Rukia's soul from the depths of exhaustion and depression it had nearly drowned in just a few minutes before. "Maybe later," he promised her, still sounding a bit shaken from the whole experience. Rukia couldn't blame him; he _had_ just nearly died.

And that's when an ominous voice echoed around the large, rubble-filled room. "Well, well. Looks like I didn't need to bother bringing the girl along after all. Long time no see, Kurosaki!"

* * *

"Grimmjow!" Ichigo scrambled swiftly to his feet again, one hand automatically peeling Nell off and setting her behind him and the other reaching for Zangetsu lying beside him.

The blue-haired Arrancar grinned at him, and then dropped the large bag he carried onto the floor, immediately stepping over it. To Ichigo's horror, the bag let out a pained squeak when it hit the ground, rustling around with muffled noises. A moment later, a pair of white-clad legs kicked themselves free of it. "Who exactly is-" Ichigo started to demand.

Grimmjow interrupted him with a laugh. "Who cares? You know why I'm here, Kurosaki. Let's finish this!"

Ichigo's grip on Zangetsu's hilt tightened. "_Think we can take him?_" he sent, directing the thought both at his hollow and at his zanpakutou.

He received an affirmative from both of them, and Hichigo cackled. "_Take him? Our reiatsu is fully restored, and there's not a scratch on us! If we can actually use that hollow form we just unlocked, then together we can _maul_ him!_"

Zangetsu's voice rumbled from within. "_I am ready, Ichigo._"

A small smirk appeared on Ichigo's face. "_That's what I thought._"

"Lisa, stay back, get Rukia healed, and let me handle this." He stepped toward Grimmjow, leveling his blade at his opponent. "You're right, Grimmjow. Let's finish..." Ichigo trailed off as the bag's occupant finally managed to free her head, her complaints still muffled by a gag tied around her mouth.

"Inoue!" Rukia tried to pull herself to her feet, but Lisa gently pushed her down again as she got up herself, her eyes locked on the auburn-haired girl.

Ichigo was way ahead of her, breaking out into a run toward his friend. Grimmjow rushed at him, meeting him halfway, and their swords locked together in a shower of sparks. "What were you doing with Inoue?" Ichigo growled dangerously.

Grimmjow merely laughed in his face, twisting for a swift kick that Ichigo barely avoided. The Arrancar immediately had to turn to defend as Lisa came at him from the side.

Without waiting to see the outcome of the attack, Ichigo ducked around Grimmjow and started toward Inoue again, reaching out to her as he ran.

Movement caught the corner of his eye and he jerked his arm back just in time to save it from being separated from the rest of him. Instinctively, he whirled, bringing Zangetsu up to defend, and his sword met another blade.

Grimmjow wasn't the one holding that blade. Ichigo stared up in horror at the man who had nearly killed him just minutes before. "Ulquiorra."

"Grimmjow," Ulquiorra addressed his fellow Arrancar with his usual monotone, his dark green eyes fixed piercingly on Ichigo's. "Why exactly has Inoue Orihime been brought here?"

"Che." Grimmjow shoved himself away from where he'd crossed blades with Lisa, turning nonchalantly to face Ulquiorra. "Thought I could use her for something. Turns out she's useless here, but at least I rescued her from the couple of brats who managed to get past your security."

Ulquiorra raised an eyebrow, finally turning his head toward Grimmjow in faint surprise. "Rescue, you say?"

Grimmjow grinned at him cockily. "Didn't know your little pet was a bully magnet, did you? Ah, well. Like I said, I ain't using her, so if you wanna take her back, go ahead. Gets her out of my hair."

Eyes widening slightly at that, Ichigo launched himself back into action, pulling away from Ulquiorra's sword and going for Inoue again. Ulquiorra proved too fast for him, though, and in a second, he found himself flying through the air to go crashing into one of the room's pillars.

Inoue let out a distressed yell, muffled by the gag still in her mouth.

"Very well." As Ichigo pulled himself from the rubble with a groan, he noted the green-eyed man going to Inoue's side, helping her to her feet. Ignoring her fearful look of pleading, Ulquiorra stood behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders in an ominous fashion. "I shall be verifying your claim, Grimmjow."

With that, he and Inoue were gone.

Grimmjow let out a snort, then turned to face Ichigo again with a wide smirk. "Now, then. Back to our fight!"

Ichigo grit his teeth, jumping down from the pile of debris and rushing at the gap in the wall where Ulquiorra had flash stepped away. "Hang on just a second! You're not getting away!"

Grimmjow intercepted him again. "Are you deaf or something, Kurosaki? Your opponent for this battle is ME!"

With a low growl, Ichigo swung his blade to knock the Arrancar aside, lunging at him immediately afterward to press his advantage. Grimmjow ducked around his blow and countered with his own. Ichigo brought Zangetsu up to defend, and their swords locked together once more.

"Lisa, go after Inoue!" Ichigo ordered tersely, keeping his gaze focused on Grimmjow's grinning face.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Lisa giving him an irritated look. "You want me to leave Rukia injured here?" she demanded. "With you?"

Ichigo started to answer, but Rukia interrupted, sounding insulted. "Yes, leave me here! Go after Inoue!"

"Nell will take care of Itsugo'th friend!" Nell put in, waving her arms around.

"I'll take care of myself!" Rukia corrected. "Go!"

Lisa still didn't move, other than to glare down at both girls. "My charge is _Ichigo_. I'm only here to keep _him_ from attacking _you_, not go gallivanting off to complete his mission for him."

With a frustrated snort, Ichigo finally shoved away from Grimmjow, skidding away to stop several yards back from him so that he could turn his full attention to the Vaizard. "Look, you hentai-reading jerk-off!" he yelled down at her, a fire starting to burn in his eyes once more. "I've told you a million times before, I don't need a babysitter! I've seen you Vaizard fight, and you're too good a fighter to be sitting around _watching_ me all the time!"

Lisa gave him a calm look that only served to annoy him further. "And I've told you: when your inner hollow starts that battle-"

"Hichigo's not _going_ to start the battle!" Ichigo growled at her. "Not now, not ever." Lisa started to protest that, but he didn't let her. "Don't you get it? Our friend is in danger, and right now, that is our top priority! Get your face out of your rear end, and go _help her_!"

Lisa appeared completely unaffected by his words, but then Nell ran to her side, giving her legs a firm shove.

"You heard him!" Nell said, continuing to push against the immovable Vaizard. "Get! Go help! You'th a meanie-head! You doethn't care about anybody! That'th why you hath no friendth! Go help, meanie!"

Grimmjow laughed, having leaned back to watch the exchange, tucking his thumbs into the pockets of his hakama. He still held his sword loosely in one hand, but seemed to be waiting for Ichigo to finish his conversation. "Kid's got guts for such an annoying brat, eh?"

Ichigo ignored him, still watching for Lisa's reaction with narrowed eyes. In the back of his mind, Hichigo scowled as well. "_Geez, what is her problem? She didn't do this earlier!_"

"_Earlier, I didn't have friends around me that I could potentially attack,_" Ichigo guessed dryly. Hichigo snorted, rolling his eyes.

Finally, Lisa grew fed up with all the pushing. "Fine, I'll go," she shot at Ichigo. "If anything happens while I'm gone, you'll only have yourself to blame." With that, she flash stepped away without waiting for a response.

Grimmjow just laughed again, shooting Ichigo a grin. "Man, the only thing that'll happen when that girl's gone is that we'll all celebrate. Ready, Kurosaki?"

Grudgingly, still wanting to go after Inoue himself, Ichigo forced himself to turn back to Grimmjow. "Right. The faster I beat you, the faster I can go help. Let's go, Grimmjow."

The Arrancar didn't need to be asked twice. With a yell that dripped with the thrill of battle, he slammed his left hand down on his blade, clenching his fingers so that just the tips touched the steel, and swiped it along the full length. "_Kishire_, Pantera!"

A swirl of dust and debris obscured him for a moment, and when he emerged, his form had completely changed, giving him the appearance of a feline as he crouched. The mask fragment on his jawbone disappeared completely, and his bright blue hair had grown all the way down to his ankles, looking more like a thick mane than anything else. When he grinned up at Ichigo, sharp teeth flashed at him in the dim light.

An anticipatory smirk appeared on Ichigo's face as he raised Zangetsu, falling into an attack position. Grimmjow had released his sword. This battle was going to be fun.

* * *

As Lisa dashed through yet another wide, seemingly endless white corridor, she couldn't shake the niggling thought that the reiatsu she currently followed belonged to a man strong enough to easily take down Ichigo's inner hollow at close to full strength. The thought warned her to stay away, every instinct within her telling her to run the opposite direction of where she currently headed.

Lisa had mastered her instincts a long time ago. She ran on.

Frowning, she focused instead on the other reiatsu she tracked, that of Inoue Orihime.

Lisa didn't really know what to think of Inoue. She'd never met her before, but she seemed to be of great importance to Ichigo and the rest of his friends. Of course, from what she gathered, Ichigo's friends were all a rather tight-knit group anyway, so that didn't really say much about the girl herself.

Still, tracking her down and keeping her safe had been abruptly added to her list of objectives here, so whether she knew the girl or not, she would fulfill that duty to the best of her ability. And if it got her killed in the process...

She didn't let that thought go any further, focusing instead back on the path ahead of her.

Ulquiorra had gotten an incredible distance ahead of her by the time she'd started after him, and she didn't appear to be gaining any ground on them. Consequently, she relied purely on her reiatsu sense; something she didn't have to do very often.

It didn't help that the corridors in Las Noches were so confusing to get around in the first place, but when every direction seemed to feel like Inoue had been there recently, getting very lost became a real possibility.

Just when she'd decided that someone must be messing with the hallway layout just to lead her in circles, however, she stumbled upon an open doorway. As she approached, pained screaming issued from within, and she hurried to look inside.

A strange sight met her eyes. Ulquiorra stood in the center of the dimly lit room, hovering over two young-looking Arrancar girls who lay on their backs, scooting away from him slowly as they cried out.

"We're sorry!" the blonde one yelled, throwing an arm up over her head. "Please, don't kill us! Please!"

"This is your fault!" the other screeched, glaring at someone standing in the corner of the room. "You snitched on us! I know you did!"

The girl in the corner shrunk back slightly, turning away to look out the room's only window with a sad look on her face. Lisa started slightly as she recognized the girl she followed: Inoue.

Ulquiorra didn't even say a word, merely taking one hand out of his pocket, revealing two black squares held within. The girls both let out squeaks of fear at the sight of them.

Lisa decided it was about time she moved in. "What are you doing?" she demanded, stepping out into view, hand on the hilt of her sword.

Without looking at her, Ulquiorra tossed the cubes at the other Arrancar, and somehow each one found a place within the girls' hollow holes. In an instant, the air seemed to open up around them, swallowing them up into darkness. Their screams cut off as the air clamped down again, and then they were gone.

Finally, Ulquiorra turned to her, his face as emotionless as a stone. "Aizen-sama gives the Espada the privilege of carrying these caja negación cubes. They are used as punishment for those fraccion and numeros who deserve it." He paused, glancing back at the girl in the shadows before continuing. "They deserved it."

"I... see." Lisa remained slightly shaken by the abrupt disappearance of the two Arrancar, but she quickly steeled herself, ready for a fight. "I came for Inoue Orihime."

At the sound of her name, Inoue looked up from the window, looking strangely complacent. "Why?" she wondered softly.

That took Lisa aback for a moment. "To rescue you, of course. I came here with Kurosaki Ichigo."

Inoue's eyes softened at the mention of Ichigo, but she quickly looked away without saying anything.

"Inoue Orihime is not in need of rescue," Ulquiorra informed her flatly, stepping slowly between the two. "She came here of her own accord, and has pledged her life to Aizen-sama."

Lisa frowned at him, then looked to the girl for confirmation. "Is this true?"

Inoue looked distinctly uncomfortable, but she nodded, the movement barely perceptible. Lisa studied the girl carefully, her frown only deepening as she watched her.

True, she wasn't bound or gagged in any way—apparently that was just something that Grimmjow had done to make her come with him. She also wore the same type of uniform as the Arrancar, obviously customized to fit her. Even the sparsely furnished room they were in didn't seem to be a prison in any way, other than a few widely-spaced bars on the window that seemed more for decoration than anything else. All the signs pointed toward the conclusion that she'd truly changed sides in this war.

All signs, except one: the way she'd reacted to hearing that her friends had come to rescue her. Lisa had clearly read in the girl's face her desire that her friends not be hurt, her worry for their safety easy to see. And as Lisa watched, Inoue looked up with a shy determination in her eyes. She was planning something.

Lisa backed down, her hand falling away from the hilt of her sword. "I guess I'll inform your rescue party," she said unsurely, eying Ulquiorra. To her vague surprise, the Arrancar seemed perfectly content to simply let her leave, turning away from her as she spoke. She focused back on Inoue. "Ichigo won't like this."

Inoue hesitated for a moment before nodding again. Squeezing her eyes shut, she spoke in a near whisper. "Tell Kurosaki-kun... that I'm okay. I know what I'm doing."

"He'll keep coming after you anyway," Lisa informed her. _He'll see right through your ruse. He'll know that you're not really with Aizen._

A small smile appeared on Inoue's face as she nodded once more. "I know." And somehow, Lisa got the feeling that the statement applied to all of her unspoken thoughts.

Lisa watched the girl intently for another long moment. _Whatever you're planning, girl... you'd better do it quickly. You're running out of time._

Slowly, she stepped back out of the room, keeping her eyes on Inoue for as long as she could. Then, steeling herself, she turned away, running once more down the long corridor.

* * *

Ichigo had begun to get tired.

Rukia could barely tell this, as the two combatants moved almost too fast for her to keep track, but eventually she saw it. Ichigo started to breathe more heavily, and he took a few hits that he really should have been able to dodge around.

Still, Rukia knew better than to get involved in the fight. Not only was she still injured, but she knew that Ichigo had apparently picked up on that stupid 11th squad motto that said accepting help in a one-on-one fight meant admitting weakness, or some such nonsense. Besides that, the orange-headed teen seemed to be having a good time with the fight, and he'd managed to wear his opponent down quite a bit too.

So instead, she and Nell could only watch the battle progress as she sat by, trying to heal her own wounds as quickly as she could. The longer it took, the more the adrenaline from everything wore off and the pain and cold began to set in.

Healing kidou worked in two parts: the first step restored reiatsu while the second step used that reiatsu to heal the wound. Using healing kidou on yourself was always a difficult task, since it took additional reiatsu to work the kidou itself, leaving very little restored to actually heal.

It was difficult, but not impossible. Slowly but surely, the hole in her stomach began to repair itself. Gritting her teeth against their chattering, she forced herself to focus on her kidou instead of on her friend fighting above them.

Nell's gaze remained fixed firmly on Ichigo, an intense amount of worry shining in her large grey-green eyes. When Rukia noticed this, she let out a small sigh, feeling that she should say something to comfort the girl despite her own difficulties. "He'll be okay."

"Nell doethn't want Itsugo to get hurt anymore," Nell responded without looking at her, voice wavering. "I with Itsugo could thtop fighting."

With a sigh, Rukia shook her head. "Stopping him from fighting means stopping him from fighting for his friends. And that's something I'd never take away from him. It's what makes him the kind of person that he is." A small smile appeared on her face as she remembered Ichigo lecturing her on letting him decide who he got cut up for. "He's willing to do whatever it takes to help those he cares about."

Nell nodded, still looking upset. "I know. That'th why I like him," she sniffled. "But I thtill doethn't want him to get hurt."

"Of course not. I don't either." Rukia tried to focus back on her kidou again. "But don't worry. He'll be fine."

Nell started to protest this, but suddenly, a drastic reiatsu shift washed over them from the battle above.

Rukia's head shot up, just in time for her to watch Ichigo's red and white mask start to form across his face—the old mask, not the strange horned one.

Ichigo—no, Hichigo—grinned, leaping back into the fray with a renewed vigor. Grimmjow laughed as he raised an arm to block an overhead blow, immediately twisting to smack away a second swing to his side and then kicking to dissipate a Getsuga Tenshou blast.

Hichigo used sonido to flash step away, avoiding the return blow from Grimmjow, and sent off another few small Getsugas before catching a punch on Zangetsu's blade, holding it there for several seconds as sparks flew off the Arrancar's steel skin.

As the two continued to exchange lightning-fast blows, Rukia's brow furrowed as she studied her masked friend. Why had Ichigo let his hollow take control?

That same question plagued her even when thinking about the last battle Ichigo had with Grimmjow, right before the Vaizard had taken him, and she couldn't think of any good reason for it now, either. Intelligent being or not, trustworthy or not, she just couldn't see giving up control of oneself to anybody, for any reason.

Carefully, she watched the battle for a sign, something that might explain Ichigo's actions to her. The healing kidou faded away unnoticed as she lost her concentration.

Ichigo definitely had a distinctly separate fighting style from his hollow self. He fought brashly, but every move he made appeared to be deliberate and thought out, even the ones he made at lightning speeds. Hichigo, on the other hand, had a berserker style, and seemed to like trying to overwhelm his opponent with as many attacks as possible. He hardly seemed to aim his energy blasts as he sent them Grimmjow's direction, and his occasional laugh seemed calculated to send shivers running down her spine.

"Why ith you afraid of Hitsugo?" Nell wanted to know suddenly. Rukia jumped a little at the question, wondering how this child had been able to read her so well.

"I'm not afraid of Ichigo's hollow," Rukia answered carefully.

Nell shook her head. "You doethn't even like to thay hith name. You'th watching him like he'th gunna come attack you. What'd he ever do to you?"

Rukia frowned. Strangely, the girl had a point. Technically, Hichigo hadn't ever _done_ anything to warrant suspicion or hatred, other than being a hollow that took control of her friend. Not that those weren't usually good reasons for suspicion and hatred.

With a shrug, she tried to dodge around the question, not feeling up to explaining exactly why Hichigo made her uncomfortable. "I'm a Shinigami. He's a hollow. We're natural enemies."

"Nell ith a hollow too," the girl pointed out seriously, tapping her cracked hollow mask. "You ithn't afraid of me, and you weren't afraid of Dondochakka and Pesche neither."

Rukia held herself back from commenting on the differing power levels between Nell and Ichigo, and instead considered the original question again, her lips pursing together.

Her recent experience with Aaroniero had only reinforced her previous knowledge that a hollow taking over someone was a terrible thing, resulting only in death and sorrow. But even she had admitted that Hichigo didn't have anything in common with Aaroniero beyond both being hollows. Everything she'd seen from Hichigo seemed to defy everything she knew.

"I don't understand him," she admitted finally, staring up as he clashed with Grimmjow again, another of his laughs ringing through the air. "But I'm trying to, for Ichigo's sake."

Nell seemed to consider this for a while, before suddenly grinning at her. "I like you," she declared.

Rukia blinked at the girl. "Oh?"

"Mmhmm!" Nell latched herself onto the front of Rukia's shihakusho in a hug. Rukia winced, anticipating pain from her midsection, but surprisingly, she seemed to have finished healing more rapidly than she would have thought. "You ith brave, and you trutht your friendth. I like you."

After pausing a moment to take that in, Rukia let out a sigh, patting the top of the girl's head. "Well... thank you."

Nell gave her another wide grin. "You'th welcome!"

Several minutes went by as the two of them continued to observe the battle around them. Sometimes a blow or two would knock debris their direction, but none of it was too dangerous, and they were always able to scramble out of the way in time.

Both combatants had started getting worn down by this point, each of them bearing numerous cuts and burns. Grimmjow looked to be somehow worse for wear of the two of them, breathing far more heavily as he moved, but neither seemed about to give up despite their injuries.

And then, Hichigo pulled back suddenly, jumping down to put some distance between them. Just like that, the mask on his face shattered, and his reiatsu shifted back to normal. Ichigo stood with them once again.

Without even missing a beat, Ichigo leapt back into battle, catching Grimmjow off guard as he blasted a Getsuga Tenshou towards him. Grimmjow kicked through the attack, glaring at his opponent with fury.

"You powered back down, you brat! What did you do that for?"

Ichigo smirked at him. "Don't talk about things you don't understand, Grimmjow. This isn't a power _down_."

With that, he sent another energy blast at him, immediately flash stepping behind him to send another from that direction. Grimmjow turned to defend, and several more blows were exchanged.

"They're tag-teaming him," Rukia realized, finally understanding what the two of them were doing. Suddenly she saw their partnership in a new light. "When Ichigo uses too much energy, Hichigo takes over. And now Ichigo's rested again, so he's taken over."

Nell let out a small cheer. "You'th right! Two verthuth one! Itsugo and Hitsugo are gunna win for thure now! Right?"

With a smile, Rukia shook her head at the girl's exuberance. She didn't have quite the same excitement about the whole thing, but the strategy did make a lot of sense, and it seemed to be working well, too. Grimmjow remained as worn down as before, but while Ichigo still had all his old injuries, he had a renewed sense of energy and a determined fire in his eyes as he fought.

_It's not just about control_. Rukia's eyes softened as she came to this conclusion, watching a smile of satisfaction cross her friend's face. _It's about working together. It's about Ichigo doing exactly what he's always done—fighting for and together with his friends._

And knowing this, Rukia finally felt as though she could possibly start to trust Hichigo the way Ichigo did. He could be a friend to her, too, given the chance.

"Well," she murmured to herself under her breath, staring up at Ichigo again, "I'll make sure to give you that chance... Hichigo."

* * *

A shadow loomed in the doorway ahead of her, backlit by the light of the manmade sun in Las Noches' great dome room that lay behind it. Lisa slid to a halt as she watched the dark presence, her eyes narrowing at the deadly reiatsu that tried to cut its way into her.

"Who are you?" she called out, voice strong and steady despite her unease.

She received a laugh in return, and the figure stepped forward, revealing a little more of its extremely tall, thin form. It held a gigantic thing with two curving half-moon shapes, which she assumed was its sword.

"What's this?" it asked loudly, and Lisa finally pinned the shadow as male. "Some _woman_ who thought she was strong enough to take on the Espada? I see you're running away, now!"

Her eyes narrowed at his harsh tone. "I'm not running," she said calmly.

The Arrancar only laughed at her again. "What's your name, woman?"

Lisa considered him for a moment before finally responding, "Yadomaru Lisa."

"Yadomaru, eh?" He leaned forward, and Lisa could see his large, toothy grin. "I'll remember that... for the short time that you still live."

Lisa slowly drew her sword, unimpressed by the little speech. "And you are?"

Yet another laugh resounded through the hallway. "Quinto Espada, Nnoitra Jiruga. Your executioner."

* * *

Originally, next chapter was approximately where I was planning on ending the story. Ichigo and Hichigo have their partnership, and once I finish showing off their new abilities together, story ends. Well, that obviously won't fly very well. Not with all the changes from canon to all the other battle scenes that are about to take place.

I was going to try to blast through as many scenes as I could for this chapter, to try to get through all the battle scenes... but what I had here ended up long, and trying to go further would result in another super-long chapter like my second chapter that takes forever to get up. So, blasting through many battle scenes is next chapter instead.

But I think I'm going to work on Day Before Tomorrow again next before that. I kind of left that one on a terrible cliffhanger, so I should go take care of that.

And in addition to that, there's NaNoWriMo for the month of November, so I'll be working on a separate story for that. I don't expect to be able to make the 50k word count goal in one month (I can barely get out a 9000 word chapter in a good month) but I have a story I want to try writing, so we'll see how much of that I can get done.

So until next chapter (which hopefully won't take me too horribly long...)!

-Daricio


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